No More Looking Back
by Jenmm31
Summary: After Alex Karev put his awful family situation behind him, he set out to make a better life for himself as a surgeon. Everything was going just fine, until one day, his sister, who he hasn't seen in years, unexpectedly shows up. There are some things he can't change, no matter how hard he tries, and he's forced to accept the true reality of what he'd left behind.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I am very excited about posting my first Grey's Anatomy story. I've had this idea floating around for over a year and I finally worked up enough courage to post it. Special thank you to sweetkiwi604 for all of her help! She's the best!  
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**This takes place sometime after the beginning of season 6. I hope you enjoy it! There's more to come :)**

**Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY.**

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The backdoor of the ambulance swung open and an ice-cold gust of air rushed in, throwing a shiver all over the young girl's body as she sat on the gurney. The constant drizzling rain that had blanketed Seattle the last few days had been a hard adjustment for her. She wore a long sleeve gray shirt with a green zip up jacket on top that was still damp from being outside. Her jacket had slowly become a darker shade of green over the last couple of days, not having a spare one to use or money to wash it. Reflexively seeking warmth, she pulled her arms in tighter across her chest, letting out a hiss of pain as the sudden movement put pressure on her wrist. With her arms pressed against her chest, a large hole was visible on her elbow, where her jacket had been torn earlier. Other than her jacket, faded jeans, and tennis shoes, the only other belonging she had was a dirty messenger bag that rested on her lap with the strap tightly grasped by her functioning hand.

The two paramedics took the gurney out of the ambulance and started rolling it toward the automatic doors of the E.R. As they opened, Dr. Cristina Yang met them on the other side.

"What do we got?" Christina asked, leading them into the room.

"Female, guessing 16 years old," Ellen, the paramedic, began to explain. Without missing a beat, she looked from the patient's indifferent face to Cristina's confused one. "She's not very talkative," she jabbed. "Found her under a bridge, cold to the bone, with a possible wrist fracture. Vitals all normal, but shows signs of dehydration so I.V. was started in the field."

They stopped the gurney beside an empty bed in the corner of the large room. There were only a few other patients around, proving to be quite a slow day for everyone.

"Ok, I'm Dr. Yang. What's your name?" she asked, but was met with a stern glare and silence as the teen scooted herself onto the new bed.

"Good luck getting anything out of her. The only emotion she showed was when she found out we were coming to this hospital," Ellen added. Quite frankly they couldn't have gotten to the hospital fast enough for her. She was tired of dealing with moody teenagers who had an attitude problem and didn't appreciate their help. She was more than happy to dump this case off on someone else and get back out in the field.

"You _really_ don't even have a name?" Cristina asked, slightly annoyed that they didn't even have the basic information. Now she'd have to play secretary and fill in all the personal information spaces on her chart and she wasn't thrilled about that. The tall, male paramedic shrugged his shoulders and threw her an apologetic look before he and his partner headed back toward the rig.

Cristina shifted her weight to the other foot as she looked squarely at her new patient. "You got a name?" she tried again. She wasn't known for her charm, but maybe this girl would work with her. She was wrong. Emotionless, emerald green eyes stared back at her. "Okay then, Chatty Kathy it is," she quipped. "I'm going to take a look at your wrist now." She reached out to grab it, but 'Kathy' resisted at first; however, at seeing the determined look on the doctor's face, she relented and let her take a closer look. "Yeah, we're going to need an x-ray," Yang announced nonchalantly, before pulling back the curtain. "Can someone page ortho?" she yelled to a nurse standing nearby, more as a command than a request, before returning her attention to Kathy. "How'd it happen?" she pried, something in her tone saying she was more curious than anything. Maybe it'd be a good story to pass the time.

"Got into a fight with a bear," Kathy mocked, not willing to come clean. She added an eye roll to show just how annoyed she was that this doctor wouldn't stop pestering her. She obviously lied, because telling the truth meant them finding out details, which in turn would bring more people and authorities down on her—and she couldn't risk that, not until she found what she'd come looking for.

"Pretty young for a forest ranger, huh?" Cristina commented, playing along with her lies. Kathy let a small smile pass her lips. At least this doctor wasn't hounding her for real answers. "We're going to take you for an x-ray shortly, okay? Let's put your backpack under the bed," she said, reaching out to grab it from Kathy's grasp.

"No," she hissed, jerking it out of her reach. "It stays with me," she stated flatly, leaving no room for discussion.

Cristina held her hands up in retreat. "Fine," she replied, knowing she'd hit a soft spot. "Stay here. Someone will come get you for your x-ray. I'll be back later to check on you."

And with that, she disappeared behind the curtain, leaving 'Kathy' all alone. Throwing her head back against the pillow, she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd made it—finally made it to her destination. She hadn't gotten here as planned by any means…if it hadn't been for that stupid incident and the ambulance, but it didn't matter because she wound up here just the same. Now all she had to do was find _him_. Using her right hand, she opened her bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Carefully opening it, she read over it again, even though she had memorized the information long ago. _Dr. Alex Karev…surgeon…Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital…_

Kathy closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts for a brief moment. She was so close, yet she was so far because now there was one big obstacle standing in her way: this trip to the ER. She knew she couldn't get that x-ray because then they would be able to see that this wasn't the first time her bones had snapped.

Suddenly, she heard Cristina's voice on the other side of the curtain, speaking in a low tone. She held her breath in an attempt to listen closely. _"…and call social services. Kid won't talk so I'm sure there's something going on._"

Kathy's chest started to move up and down more rapidly as her breathing increased. A sudden burst of anxiety and fear spread through her system. She stared stoically at her mud-stained shoes, trying to process the seriousness of her current situation. Things were becoming more complicated than she had expected. She had never thought that they would move so quickly to call social services. The second she had entered this hospital, all of her worries had quickly washed away, thinking that she was somehow in the clear, like a fortress of safety was around her now that she was at the correct hospital. But hearing Dr. Yang's request just added to the urgency of everything. If they figured out who she was, they'd call her mom and that would just mean a long trip back _there_. And she'd rather break her other wrist herself than go back _there_. She had to get moving and it was now or never.

Without wasting another second, she reached over and quickly pulled the IV out of her arm, biting her lip to not let a gasp of pain escape. Grabbing her bag, she peered around the closed curtain and saw her doctor and a few others trail behind her as they rushed to receive a new trauma patient at the door. With the coast momentarily clear, she slipped around the barrier and disappeared through some doors and down the hallway in search of an elevator.

She threw the long strap of her bag over her head so it was across her body and hung along her hip. The once beige bag was now brown with noticeable wear and tear, much resembling her life. She'd been through more stuff than she'd ever dreamt possible, but just like her bag, she kept on going. No stain was too deep that it couldn't be ignored among the ocean of all the others.

When she spotted the large silver doors up ahead, it was like she had found a stairway to Heaven. Quickening her pace, she reached them and pressed the button immediately to go up. She had to vanish from this floor soon before someone noticed she was gone and came looking for her. The doors opened instantly, like they had been there waiting on her all along. She swiftly stepped inside, leaving her no time to see which floor the surgical department was on.

As the doors were about to close, a hand reached in, causing them to reopen. Her breath was momentarily caught in her throat as she expected to be caught red-handed trying to escape. However, a tall doctor with longer, black hair flashed her a smile as he entered the elevator and she felt her shoulders relax. Noticing that none of the floor buttons had been pressed, he turned to her, "Where are you heading?" Genuine kindness was clear in his voice.

She felt her cheeks begin to flush as she realized she had no idea how to answer. Ever so slowly she extended her left hand down by her side, trying to hide her disfigured wrist from his gaze. She didn't need any red flags to go up, especially with a doctor. She sheepishly asked, "Do you which floor surgery is on?"

He smiled warmly, "Yes I do. I'm heading there as well." Derek pressed the button and the elevator started to ascend. He didn't give her ragged clothing a second thought as he had seen people from all walks of life come through those hospital doors and it was just normal to him now. They rode up a few floors before the doors opened again and he held out his arm, signaling for her to get off first. She offered him an appreciative smile and stepped off of the elevator and looked in both directions, trying to decide where to go.

Picking up on her hesitation, Derek placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and pointed to an area over to the right where a few doctors and nurses were gathered. Thinking she must be just another child looking for a family member, he offered, "There's the nurse's station. They should be able to help you."

"Thank you," she replied before they both took off in opposite directions.

As she slowly approached the counter, she took in all of her surroundings. There were patient rooms lined on her right and only hushed whispers and squeaky shoes echoed through the hall. A few people were wandering around and passed by her without even a second glance. The moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived; she was literally feet away. He had to be somewhere on this floor and she was about to find him. Her long journey was coming to an end. She'd left with nothing but the clothes she had on, a small bag filled with anything she could cram in it on short notice, and a broken wrist. And all roads had led to this.

"Can you check on those labs for 507?"

She froze at the sound of his voice. Sure she hadn't heard it in years, but she would have been able to recognize it anywhere. Just then Alex Karev appeared from around the corner, tossing the chart down on top of a stack at the nurse's station. He looked much better than she had remembered. His posture seemed different too…like he wasn't carrying the weight of the world on them anymore. Suddenly she became nervous, momentarily regretting her decision to come here and bring him back into all this. Every bone in her body was telling her to just flee, that this was all a bad idea and he wouldn't want her there anyway. But she couldn't do it; her feet wouldn't let her go back.

She took a deep breath as she shuffled a few more feet in his direction, watching his every move as he wrote something on a patient's chart. She was about five feet from him when he sensed her presence and peered over to his left at her. The locked eyes for a brief moment and after the panic passed, she was filled with the confidence she needed to speak.

"Hey Alex," she greeted, feeling her body relax at finally seeing him face-to-face and being able to say his name again.

His head turned ever so slightly to the side in confusion at hearing his name. He looked at this young girl up and down, trying to place her. Was she an old patient or had he treated someone in her family? Why was she on a first name basis with him anyway? Where did he know her from? He blinked a couple of times, at a loss of how to respond, but something about it just felt _different_.

Noticing his hesitation and furrowed brow, she joked, "Did you forget about me?" She let a nervous laugh escape her lips as she waited for him to respond.

And then he suddenly knew exactly who she was. The memories hit him like a ton of bricks as his chest felt crushed and his breath was caught in his throat.

_Alex had finally finished packing what few belongings he had into his run down car that had seem better days about 15 years ago. He was dead set on leaving this house and town in his rearview mirror. He was going off to college…he had a wrestling scholarship and big dreams to fulfill. He wasn't about to let his shitty home life hold him back anymore. As he rounded the corner into the living room, his little sister caught his eye with her braided brown hair resting on both shoulders. She sat crossed-legged on the couch, seemingly lost in a hand-me-down shirt that was too big for her. She couldn't have been more than six and he felt a pang of guilt at leaving her there. But he straightened his shoulders again, somehow convincing himself that she had Aaron and he would take care of her now. He wasn't abandoning anyone; no one would be left alone. He had to focus on himself for once and couldn't be held down by responsibilities that never should have been on him to start with. This wasn't being selfish since he'd help them out when he could. He was sure of it. He'd told himself that over and over the last few days. And that was how he justified leaving them._

_"__Hey, Alex?" his sister whispered, almost inaudible._

_Alex took a few steps over and sat down beside her on the couch, feeling his heart drop when he saw her lively green eyes turn grim. "Yeah?"_

_"__Promise you won't forget about me," she pleaded as a few stray tears fled her eyes. _

_Alex took a deep breath in an attempt to push down any feelings. He didn't have time to _feel_ right now. Her question had been so simple to answer. Of course he would never forget he had a little sister. But there was so much more weight behind it, even for a little girl. It was her begging him to not lose touch, to remember where they live, to not leave her as part of his past like so many others had done. "I promise," he replied, feeling his gut fall through into a deep, internal, self-loathing abyss of lies._

Alex shook his head, as if he was bringing himself back to reality. "Amber," he pronounced in a low voice, unable to believe he was saying her name. It had been years since he'd heard her voice and even longer since he'd seen her. "What are you doing here?" He stared at her more closely, fully taking in her appearance. He abruptly realized her less-than-presentable clothes and how her wrist hung at abnormal angle by her side, like she was trying to hide it. Noticing he had caught eye of her injury, she dropped her head, unable to meet his gaze anymore in fear of what he would say. His face was no longer confused, but showed deep concern at the sight before him. "What happened?" he demanded.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much for your reviews and for adding this story to your favorites and story alerts! You guys are the best! I hope you like this next part :)  
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**Read, review, but most importantly, ENJOY!**

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_His face was no longer confused, but showed deep concern at the sight before him. "What happened?" he demanded._

Amber felt his gaze burn into her as she continued to stare down, silently observing the contrasts between his clean tennis shoes and her dirty ones, suddenly finding it interesting.

When she didn't make any attempt to answer, Alex tried again, his voice firmer, "Amber, what's going on?" This was the last thing he had expected to be thrown at him today. He was fully aware that she wouldn't have come without a reason behind it, and he needed to get to figure that out now.

Sensing the frustration in his tone, her head shot up, but she immediately noticed that his face didn't reflect what she'd heard. His brow was furrowed in confusion and traces of worry wrinkled across his forehead. She was momentarily taken back by the genuine concern visible behind his eyes.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing," she said nonchalantly, throwing in a half smile to convince him. This definitely wasn't the time or the place to go into any kind of detail. There were too many witnesses within earshot that could overhear them and that would surely cause problems later.

He shifted his weight to the other foot in annoyance, before tossing the chart on the desk beside him. Why was she making this so hard? "The phone doesn't work for you?" he threw back, lowering his voice, not wanting to cause a scene either.

"Does it work for _you_?" she challenged, more emotion behind those words than she had wanted. _Now is not the time for feelings_, she mentally reminded herself.

Alex ran his hand along his hardened jaw line, becoming uncomfortable at what she was implying by that. Sure, it had been _years_ since he had last called home and even more since he'd actually been there physically, but he had never stopped sending checks, so it wasn't like he had cut them off from his life completely. Wanting to take the conversation off _him_, he reached out and grabbed her elbow, pulling her arm out in between them. The florescent lights brought everything into clear view: the obvious fracture and discoloration around the wrist. He paused for a moment, digesting everything and starting to draw his own unwanted conclusions. He knew that judging by the color of the bruising, this didn't happen in the last 24 hours. He gently turned her arm slightly to the side and the marks that faintly resembled fingers didn't go unnoticed.

"When did this happen?" he inquired, wanting to get some kind of real information out of her before he had to take her to get this fixed.

"The other day," she replied, softly tugging against his grasp.

Without removing his hold, he took a step closer to her, narrowing the distance between them to just inches. "Who did this to you?" he demanded in a hushed tone.

She took a step back, acting as if she were taken off guard by the insinuation. "What? No one!" she lied through her teeth like a natural reflex. "Alex, look, can we go somewhere and talk about…."

"Dr. Karev!" someone shouted. An intern came jogging down the hallway, her black haired ponytail flapping back and forth as she hand on to her stethoscope around her neck. Both Karevs turned their attention to her. "Your patient in 503 is coding. Dr. Bailey needs you," the doctor explained as she tried to catch her breath.

Alex looked between the two, hating that this happened at the worst possible moment. "Okay," he replied, taking a few steps in the other direction and the intern had already turned back, jogging off just as fast as she'd arrived. Alex quickly looked to see who was nearby, and his eyes fell on Meredith, who was standing on the far side of the counter, writing something in a chart. "Hey, Meredith," he called, rushing over to her. "Do me a favor and take her to get a wrist x-ray and get some food," he said more as a command than a question. He pointed to Amber before turning on his heel and running around the corner toward the patient's room.

Meredith hesitated for a moment, unprepared for his sudden request and abrupt disappearance before she'd even had a chance to reply. She nodded back to him, but he was already long gone. She turned to Amber and offered a polite smile as she walked over to her. "I'm Dr. Grey, what's your name?"

"Elizabeth," she replied without even thinking. When the name she'd said hit her ears, she froze, not even realizing that she'd let the lie roll right off her tongue in the first place. She was so used to lying to everyone in the last few days as she made her way out to Seattle that she'd forgotten that the people here would find out about her lies. She was on the verge of correcting herself, but couldn't do it. What would this doctor think of her when she tried to explain that she'd said the wrong name? She'd be hauling her off to a whole different department, imagining her to be as crazy as the rest of her family, so she decided to remain silent. She took a deep breath, momentarily relieved that she'd been using her middle name, so at least it was semi-plausible in its own strange way.

"Ok, Elizabeth. How about I take you to the cafeteria to grab something to eat and then I'll drop you off at x-ray." Meredith led her down the hall into the elevators once again. Trying to make small talk to fill the silence and realizing she literally had no idea who this girl was, she asked, "Are you a patient of Dr. Karev's?"

Amber wavered for a second, uncertain how to respond. There was no telling who she could trust with any information in this place, so she replied, "No, he, uh, he used to treat my mom. I just came to see if he could help with my arm." There, that was essentially the truth. No harm done.

"Do you want me to see if I can get something to help with the pain? I can look for your chart," she offered, trying to help. Between the dark bruising and deformed arm, she knew this poor girl had to be in pain.

"No, thanks. It doesn't hurt," she replied softly as she stared at her arm. It had hurt for the first few hours, but then the pain always subsided, or she just learned to ignore it like all the other times. Either way, for her, the pain was minimal and that's all that mattered.

The doctor looked at her skeptically and Amber gave her a reassuring smile. "Okay…," Meredith trailed off as the elevator doors opened. "The cafeteria is this way," she pointed to the left. They entered a large room with numerous tables filled with doctors and nurses in scrubs, but there were a few 'normal' people mixed in here and there, making Amber not feel so out of place.

They walked up to the counter and Amber ran through the list of items, everything sounded appetizing. Hamburgers, french fries, pizza. All the foods she hadn't touched in a long time. Then she glanced over at the prices and felt her hopes of eating suddenly deflate. The measly $2 she carried in her bag wouldn't be enough to buy even a bottle of water. She took a small step back before mumbling, "I don't think I'm really hungry."

Meredith instantly picked up on the crimson color of her cheeks that were flushed with embarrassment. "It's okay if you don't have cash on you right now," she reassured. "We will just charge it to Dr. Karev's account and you can pay him back later," she encouraged, thinking they must have some kind of personal relationship since she'd come here looking specifically for him, so she didn't think he'd have a problem with doing it this way. If he threw his typical bitch fit, she'd just pay for the food and be done with it.

Amber felt slightly alleviated at hearing that, but guilty at the same time for taking _more_ money from her brother. She opted to buy a simple yogurt parfait, since it was the cheapest thing this over-priced cafeteria offered.

After purchasing the food, Dr. Grey led her down the hallway to radiology and pointed toward some over-sized chairs in the waiting area. "I'll go let them know what you're here for and tell Alex where you are."

Amber politely nodded before taking a seat. She slowly took in her surroundings. There was one other couple sitting on the other side of the room in the corner, speaking in hushed voices to one another. Dr Grey was speaking with the receptionist as she typed away fervently on the computer. Once she had finished, Meredith took a few steps toward her and said, "I'll be back to check on you a little later, okay?"

Amber nodded and smiled appreciatively at her. "Thank you for your help."

Meredith returned her smile and threw her one last wave goodbye before heading out of the room.

Turning her attention to the yogurt still in her hand, Amber beamed with eagerness at her small container of food, unable to wait any longer to eat. She sat the yogurt between her legs, taking off the lid and eating with her good hand, while her other rested on her lap.

With each consecutive bite replenishing her malnourished and weak body, she began gathering enough strength to think of her new game plan. She was obviously getting the x-ray, because even if she disappeared again like she had earlier, Alex was sure to bring her back down here himself to get it. So now it was time to consider damage control for when the results showed up. Every scenario ran through her head and the implications each one would bring. The only logical option that occurred to her, even though it was the one she'd wanted to avoid the most, was that Alex had to be the one, the only one, to read the x-ray. He may not want to believe what she knew it would show, but there was no way he would call child services on his own sister. He knew all too well torrential nightmare that would be for her and their family. Should any other doctor read the scan, there wasn't a doubt in her mind that a social worker would be over here in less than 5 minutes.

So that was it. That was what needed to happen. Alex and only Alex.

"Elizabeth?" the middle-aged radiologist technician asked from the doorway. "Elizabeth?" he repeated, glancing between Amber and the other couple, trying to decide which was his patient.

Suddenly realizing the name he'd called, Amber looked up and politely greeted as she neared him.

"Let's get that wrist of yours x-rayed," he announced enthusiastically, motioning for her to follow him down the hallway.

She shuffled a few steps behind him, before suggesting, "I think I'm supposed to wait on Dr. Karev for the x-ray."

"No worries, sweetie," he answered. "I'm sure he's busy, but he will see the scans as soon as we have them, okay?"

She stuttered, "But…I…uh…"

Just as they were about to enter the room, Alex's voice came from the other end of the hall and he jogged toward them, "Hey!"

Amber felt her shoulders relax in relief at seeing him. Her plan was going to go smoothly now. "Just in time, Dr. Karev," the man smiled. "You can wait in there while I take her in," he finished, motioning toward the adjoining dimly lit room filled with a few chairs, a desk, and big computer screen where the scans could be read.

"I'll be right here," Alex reassured, more to comfort his sister than anything. He hadn't missed the scared look behind her eyes before he'd caught up to them.

The tech led her into the room and started setting up the machines for her x-ray. Meanwhile, Alex stepped into the area behind the plated window, sitting down in a chair in front of the computer. He leaned back, running a tired hand through his hair, as he fully took in the sight before him. There she was, his now teenage sister. He was really seeing her for the first time in what was probably seven years. She had changed so much, how could he have expected her not to. Her hair was longer and she was obviously taller, but she didn't fill out her body, making him wonder when was the last time she'd eaten a proper meal. As she sat up on the x-ray table, he began to notice all the tears and stains scattered along her clothing, adding to his ever-growing uncertainty about how she'd actually arrived in Seattle. He had a long list of unanswered questions that had plagued him since the moment he laid eyes on her. He let out a long sigh; this was the last thing he needed right now. His own personal life was full of all the disaster it could take at the moment, but if there was one thing he'd learned to accept about his family, it was that there was enough crazy and drama to go around for years to come.

Alex sat impatiently bouncing his leg up and down as he waited for the snail of a tech to begin taking the x-rays.

"Oh, hey. I'm glad you made it down here. I was just coming by to check on her," Meredith said as she stepped inside the room. Alex just nodded, not taking his eyes off Amber, who was trying not to wince in pain as the tech adjusted the position of her arm.

"Looked like a painful break, but she didn't want me to get her any meds. Must be a strong girl," Meredith added, feeling sorry for whatever that girl was going through.

"Yeah, must be," Alex repeated. Of course she was strong, she was a Karev after all. He took it all in for a moment, suddenly realizing just how brave she must have been to make it here clearly on her own. He didn't say anything more, not sure what else there was to say and not really interested in striking up a conversation at the moment.

Not taking a hint, Meredith pulled up the other chair and sat beside him. "So you know her well?" she pried, curious about this whole strange situation.

"I used to," he replied shortly and simply, not offering up any further information. It was the truth. He grew up with her, hell, practically raised her for the better half of her first decade. But then life got in the way, well _his_ life did anyway, and things had changed drastically.

Alex was never one to just come out and share any kind of information. Meredith knew she would have to literally pull it out of him, so she continued to pry, "She said you treated her mother a while back." It was more of an open-ended question than a statement, but Alex didn't show any signs of responding.

They sat in silence for a few moments when Cristina appeared in the doorway, taking a huge bite out of her sandwich. "So are we hiding out in here now?" she asked through a mouthful of food. She glanced through the window and noticed who was sitting on the x-ray table. "Oh hey, you guys found my Kathy patient. I've been wondering what happened to her." Both Meredith and Alex turned to her with perplexed looks. "What?" she snapped, offended by their glares. "There was this amazing trauma that came in and…"

Meredith cut her off, "That's not _Kathy_. It's Elizabeth, Alex's patient." She turned to Alex for some sign of agreement, but he hadn't acknowledged them.

Cristina took another bite of her sandwich before retorting with annoyance, "No, I'm pretty sure I can remember which patients are mine."

"But you clearly can't keep track of them," Meredith jabbed, playfully.

"Shut up, Mer. At least you got a name out of her. The brat wouldn't tell me so I dubbed her Chatty Kathy." She let out a small laugh and was joined by Meredith.

"You're cruel," Meredith joked, knowing to expect that kind of stuff from her.

Cristina took a few steps further into the room, standing behind the other two doctors as the image began to slowly appear on the screen, piece by piece. "So why are you going around kidnapping my patients anyway?"

"Her name's not Kathy _or_ Elizabeth," he said, speaking for the first time since Cristina had come in. He leaned up closer to the desk, wiling the image to show up faster.

"Are you sure, Alex? Because she told me it was Elizabeth," Meredith countered.

Alex took a deep breath before explaining, "Yes, I'm sure…because it's Amber." He hesitated a moment and added, "She's my sister."

Meredith and Cristina shared a shocked look behind his back, silently asking one another if they had any idea he even had a sister, to which both shook their heads.

Before any other words could be exchanged, the x-ray fully appeared on the screen and they all leaned a little closer to get a better look.

"Woah, Alex," Cristina interjected, holding her sandwich in mid-bite.

"…How many times has your sister broken her wrist?" Meredith asked, her eyes wide.

Alex's gaze went back and forth between the x-ray and his sister delicately cradling her wrist as she began to exit the room. "I don't know," he mumbled in a low voice.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Meredith questioned, confused as to why he wouldn't know something as basic as that about his own sister.

"Because I've been _here_, Meredith!" he shot back, anger growing in his voice as he shot up out of his seat. There was more weight behind what he'd just said than they'd ever be able to understand. "But I'm going to kill whoever did it," he declared as an afterthought, his voice dripping with rage.

He took a step toward the door, but Meredith grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around. "Alex, you need to calm down. You can't go out there, demanding answers from an already petrified teenager," she tried to reason. She searched his eyes, waiting for any sign that he was actually understanding what she had said. He ripped his arm from her grasp, but didn't make any other movements. She saw his face relax slightly. "Good. How about you let me take care of Eliza-, I mean Amber, while you get your anger management under control, okay?"

He hesitated, unsure about accepting her offer. He sighed and responded through clenched teeth, "Fine. But don't either of you breath a word of this to anyone, much less CPS, got it?" The last thing he needed was child protection services to show up and for everyone to find out about his family disaster. All he could think about was his mom having to come to the hospital to pick her up and the entire mess that it would bring down on them.

Cristina's face shot up at the mention of CPS, catching the attention of the other two doctors. "You didn't," Meredith uttered in disbelief.

"What? She was a Jane Doe at the time," she defended. Meredith narrowed her eyes at her, urging her to help. "Okay, I'll fix it," she announced almost reluctantly before shoving past Alex and out the door.

Meredith turned back, looking him square in the eye. "Now, you sit in that chair until you have it together enough to handle this properly. Got it?"

Alex's jaw remained firm and his eyes fierce; he hated being told what to do, especially after what he'd just found out. When he realized Meredith's glare wasn't budging, he sighed before moving back to his chair and throwing himself down in it. "Fine," he spat.

"Good. You can come find us when you're ready. I'll make sure she's okay," she reassured before stepping out into the hall to meet Amber and take her to a room to get her cast put on.

Alex watched them walk off down the hall as Amber kept turning around, trying to catch a glimpse of her brother. He quickly averted his gaze, not wanting to see whatever she was feeling because he was too full of anger. He turned his attention to the x-ray image on the screen, unable to take his eyes off it now. He tried to convince himself that she'd just had multiple bike accidents…or maybe she was big on sports and had hurt it a few times…but the pit in his stomach wouldn't let him actually believe any of that bullshit he was making up. He knew that whatever had happened, he was to blame. And there would be no way around that. The anger continued to build up inside of him as all these thoughts kept swirling around in his head. He had the sudden urge to punch something, to take his anger out on someone, but he held it in. This was not the place he wanted to be breaking things.

Suddenly, he shot up out of his chair with such force that it rolled back and crashed into the wall behind him. Alex took a few seconds, resting his fists on the wall and breathing deeply, as he tried to bury as much of this crap down into his internal safe box as he could, so he could go out there and face the world again. He had to get his shit together right now because his sister had unmistakably come to see him for a reason, so he just needed to brace himself for whatever was coming.

He lost track of time as he continued to stand there, letting the anger slowly subside until he was able to see clearly again. Pulling his shoulders back, he stood up tall, adjusted his white coat, and stepped out into the hallway in search of his sister's room. He didn't have a plan, much less know how he was going to start off the conversation, but what he _did_ know was that he needed answers sooner rather than later.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hola! Thank you SO much for all the amazing reviews! I am so humbled and blown away. You guys are seriously awesome! It is such wonderful motivation knowing that you readers are enjoying this story :)**

**I wanted to let you guys know that I am currently working two jobs, so writing is becoming a little harder, but I promise to update every chance I get. Please bear with me! I am loving how this story line is developing, so I plan to keep it going :) I appreciate all of your support!**

**Lastly, I want to mention beforehand that the end of this chapter contains a minor scene that alludes to abuse. **

**Read, Review, but most importantly ENJOY!**

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Alex had passed by Amber's room a few times now. It just never seemed like the right moment to go in…the doctor was either putting on her cast, explaining things to her, or Amber and Meredith were caught up in some lively conversation that he didn't want to interrupt. But those were all just excuses. He was trying to put off what he inevitably knew was coming. The second he went in there, he'd have to truly face her and whatever story she had brought along with her. He was dead set on killing whoever was involved in this 'accident' of hers, but confronting her meant he'd have to come to terms with what he'd done in the past…leaving her behind.

As the doctor was finishing up fitting Amber with a sling, Meredith caught another glimpse of Alex quickly shuffling by the window for the hundredth time. Thankfully Amber wasn't looking in that direction and if she'd noticed his constant laps outside her room, she never acted like it.

"Hey, I'll be right back. I need to go check on something," Meredith politely excused herself from the room. She closed the door softly behind her, looking in both directions for the evader. "Alex," she hissed in a low tone, trying to draw him out.

At hearing his name, he popped his head from behind the corner. "What?!" he harshly whispered back, fearful that Amber might hear him.

Meredith rolled her eyes and stomped over to his current hiding spot. He stared at her, acting like he didn't know what she wanted. Then without giving it a second thought, she made a fist and punched him hard on the upper arm.

"Ouch!" he cried, grabbing onto his now-throbbing arm. She packed a mean punch for such a small person. "What was that for?!"

She folded her arms across her chest, clearly annoyed. "What the hell are you doing? Quit stalling and get in there with her."

Alex opened his mouth to defend himself and say some lame excuse, but when he saw her raise her first up again, he thought twice about his answer. "How is she?" he questioned.

Meredith turned on her heel and began walking back toward the room, his signal to follow along. "She's fine. It was only a hairline fracture, so they put the cast on already. They're just finishing up now actually." They paused outside the door, watching as the doctor cleared everything away to leave. Amber was staring down at her latest fashion accessory, slowly picking at a loose thread on the sling. "See? Perfect timing," she encouraged.

She had no idea what kind of relationship Amber and Alex actually had—or didn't have for that matter. He had never been one to sit around the campfire and share his past. So many things about this situation didn't add up and judging by his demeanor, he was obviously trying to put off talking to her. Knowing Alex was temperamental when it came to telling anything about his personal life, she had refrained from asking more, but she knew he needed an extra push to get the ball rolling on this one.

So, as the doctor and nurse opened the door to step out, Meredith grabbed a hold of it and with her free hand, gave Alex a rough shove in the right direction.

The sudden push threw him off balance and he stumbled into the room, causing Amber to turn and see his less-than-graceful entrance. Alex went to grumble something obscene at Meredith, but by the time he turned around, she was nowhere in sight.

Alex coughed awkwardly as he made his way over to her, rolling up a stool to sit beside her bed. His mind was racing with so many questions. Why was she here? Who did that to her? How had she broken her wrist before? Was their mom even lucid enough to realize she was missing? And not a single question seemed like a good one to lead with. So he said the only thing he could come up with. "Green, nice choice," he stated flatly, motioning to her cast. Her arm was resting in a blue sling across her chest, only part of her hand peeking out the side. She wiggled her fingers, taking it all in again. Before she could say anything, he got a sudden burst of courage to speak. "Amber…I saw something on the x-ray and I want…," he began but was interrupted.

The words registered instantly in her head. She knew exactly what he was referring to. She could lie and hide things from everyone, but there was no denying the truth an x-ray showed. Each one told it's own little story—or at least the ending of it. There were lots of blank spaces to be filled in, but this wasn't the moment. There was no way they could play catch up on the last years in a single conversation.

Attempting a comedic approach on him alluding to her multiple fractures, Amber cut in, "I figure I'll get blue next time so I can keep making my way through the colors of the rainbow." She let out a nervous laugh but was met with a harsh glare from her brother.

The smile quickly faded as they sat there in silence. Clearly she didn't want to talk about the things Alex wanted, but he wasn't about to just accept that. The air grew thick with tension as one sibling came to get answers and the other was dead set on keeping as much of it a secret as possible. _She_ had showed up at _his_ workplace and that demanded some explanation at least.

"Amber," he tried again, taking a deep breath before continuing, "How did it happen?" He nodded toward her most recent break.

She avoided meeting his eyes, preferring to stare at the counter in front of the bed. She'd known he would want answers, how could he not after she'd shown up out of the blue, but it had never been in her plans to tell him any real details.

"I fell down the steps at school," she explained stoically, not elaborating any further. "You may not know this, but I'm pretty clumsy." Of course he wouldn't know that…because he had to _know_ her first, which was why she figured this story was a good cover.

Alex's eyebrows rose in disbelief that it'd been something so simple. But a "fall" didn't explain one thing. "Then why did you have marks around your wrist?" he countered.

"What marks?" He wasn't supposed to have seen those. She'd tried to hide them, but obviously the too-short-for-her sleeves on her jacket didn't help before.

"The bruises," he insisted. "Like fingers," he added as an afterthought. Because someone had grabbed her, that he was sure of. His mind began to race with every possible scenario that he'd lived through himself and his stomach cringed at the near thought of her experiencing the same thing.

Amber paused as she looked down at her wrist, like she had x-ray vision to see through the cast. "I don't remember seeing any bruises like that," she lied. Much to her relief, it was really her word against his because the answers were buried until layers of plaster.

Displeased with her answer, he narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, forming a slightly hostile barricade between them. "Why did you even come?" he spat in a low tone, deeply frustrated that this wasn't going anywhere.

She sighed heavily as she mindlessly picked at the same loose thread on her sling. She became determined to rip it out and her attention was fixated only on it, blocking out any other thoughts.

The slow steady clicking of the clock hanging on the wall echoed throughout the room. As each second passed, he grew increasingly impatient. Unable to control himself at seeing her so indifferent to this whole conversation, he yelled, "Amber!"

Abruptly pulled from her task, her head shot up and she met his eyes. They were hard, pressing her to give him _any_ information. He opened them wider, silently demanding her to speak. She'd wanted to keep things from him, but he wasn't buying the story she was dishing out. Nothing was going as planned. If she didn't give him something real, he would be kicking her out of here and shipping her back to Iowa in no time. And that would create a whole new set of problems for her. No. She needed him to understand why she was here…why she had run away…why she _needed_ him to take her in.

She cleared her throat before stating simply, "Your checks."

Alex stared at her, lost in confusion. "My checks?"

"Your checks came every month…like clockwork. Mom used to say that you were the responsible out of all of us." A small smile tugged at the side of his lips. If he hadn't been responsible, none of them would have _eaten_ back in the day. "Those checks were probably the only reliable thing in my life." She paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "For as long as I can remember, before Mom would cash them, I always analyzed your signature—seeing if you'd signed it differently. I used to make up all these silly stories." She laughed at just how stupid it sounded out loud, especially saying it to him.

"Stories about what?" Alex prompted. He still had no idea where this was going, but he was grateful that at least she was speaking something truthfully.

"Sometimes your signature was very sloppy, like you were in a rush. So I'd invent this elaborate story and tell Aaron about how you were signing it when someone rushed in and needed you for an emergency brain surgery on a dying baby, so you hurried to finish signing it," she explained.

Alex couldn't help but smile. "You know I'm not a neurosurgeon, right?"

Her grin matched his. "I do _now_." She hesitated a moment before continuing, "Over the next couple of years, some of your checks would go missing. I'd tried to confront mom about it whenever she was in a coherent state, but she'd always assured me she'd cashed them. Turned out that was a lie and more than one of her 'boyfriends'," she air quoted, "made away with the check."

He let out a frustrated sigh as he ran his hand along his firm jaw. He leaned in closer, resting his elbows on his knees. "If I'd known…"

With a reassuring smile, she replied, "Don't worry. We can't change the past." That was something they'd both have to learn to accept. He nodded apologetically before urging her to continue. "Finally, Aaron helped me convince mom that I should be in charge of the checks. So starting about a year ago, I'd take the checks to the bank and deposit them, but not before taking a small amount out for myself...never anything big, maybe $20 or so every time. Last month I'd finally saved up almost $300. I had already planned on how I was going to use it." Alex nodded, wanting her to continue. She felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as the words hit her lips, "The SAT and ACTs are coming up. And then there's college apps and everything."

"You want to go to college?" Alex asked, his voice a mixture of pure shock and pride.

Amber shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "Aaron used to tell me that I could do it, be like you. I don't know, it was just an idea. But one story at a time, okay?" Alex scooted his stool a little closer to her as he waited for her to continue. "So like any classy person, I hid the cash under my mattress. Then one day last week, I came home and as soon as I opened the front door, I heard a bunch of loud noises…"

_Amber stood motionless for a moment, trying to decipher which room all the noise was coming from. She inwardly cringed when she realized it was coming from hers down the hall. What would it be this time? Amber walked down the short hallway, glancing into her mom's room and not surprised to find her sitting there, rocking back and forth in a chair, staring mindlessly at the television, seemingly oblivious to everything that was happening under her roof. She was mentally checked out for the night. _

_"__Son of a bitch!" a man's voice bellowed from inside her room._

_Amber neared the door just in time to see her mom's latest boyfriend Greg throw her lamp across the room, shattering into a million pieces on the floor. He suddenly turned, noticing her presence in the doorway._

_"__There you are!" he accused loudly, reaching out to forcefully grab onto her wrist and yank her into the room. "You fucking thief!" It didn't take long for her to smell the alcohol reeking off his breath. _

_Her eyes danced between Greg and all the broken objects behind him. Her drawers had been pulled out and thrown carelessly in a pile, clothes hanging out everywhere. She felt anger slowly build up in her chest at seeing the chaos in _her_ room. He had no right to even touch so much as a sock of hers. She scoffed, "What are you talking about?" She pulled her arm from his grasp and instinctively took a step backwards, but there was nowhere to go and she found herself pressed up against the wall._

_"__You stole from me!" he shouted, raising his hands up in the air._

_Amber shook her head. This really couldn't be happening. Greg took a step to the side and she was able to get a full glimpse of her bed: sheets ripped off and her mattress laid at an awkward angle, half resting on the bed, half on the floor. And then it hit here._

_"__No," she begged quietly before shoving past him and over to her bed. She ran her hand underneath the remaining part of the mattress, devastated that she didn't find anything. "Where's my envelope?" she demanded._

_He let out a small laugh as an evil smile spread across his lips. "You mean _my_ envelope?" he countered, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it up in front of her. _

_Amber stood up straight, staring him right in the eye. "Give. Me. My. Money," she commanded between clenched teeth. When he didn't show any signs of replying, without even thinking, she reached out to grab the envelope he was parading in front of her, but her hand was intercepted as he strongly wrapped his fingers around her wrist._

_"__You think you can steal from me and get away with it?" he growled, taking a step closer to her. _

_Panic started to fill her body. This was happening again and her mother was in another world and her brother was away working a job and wouldn't be home for days. There was nobody here to save her and the only option she knew was to ride through the storm, but she wasn't going to do so quietly._

_"__You lying bastard," she seethed, struggling against his grasp. _

_His grip tightened and a small cry of pain escaped her lips. "You're going to regret saying that," he threatened, his voice laced with rage._

_He squeezed her wrist tighter, pulling her in closely before roughly throwing her body backwards. Before she knew it, her arm smacked harshly onto the corner of her dresser as she went tumbling to the ground. Unable to stop her tumbling body, she crashed onto the floor, hitting her head on the metal frame of her bed. The last thing Amber remembered was seeing his wicked grin as he turned on his heel and walked out of the room and their house…with her money. _

"And then everything went black. I came to in the middle of the night. I shoved as much as I could into my bag, grabbed the $20 bill I'd taped under the sink, and ran like hell," Amber finished as she wiped away a few stray tears that had fallen.

They both sat in silence, neither knowing what to say. Alex's throat had become increasingly tighter with each sentence of the story she'd just told. What kind of dick hurts an innocent, defenseless teenager? Who did he think he was, making off with _his_ money? Alex wanted to scream, to vow to get revenge on this sick bastard, to hunt him down and rip him limb from limb. But none of that was the right thing to say in that moment…when his sister's watery green eyes stared back at him, pleading for him to make things better, to assure her that she was safe here…that nobody would ever send her back there again…that the past wouldn't repeat itself again.

And he said the only thing he could think of…the one sure way to guarantee that she'd be protected. He reached out and rested a hand on her knee, trying to comfort her in his own way. Then he announced, "You're never going back there. You're staying with me now."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey! Sorry about the delay, but my parents were here visiting me for a while and I graduated from grad school finally :) Sorry this chapter it a bit shorter****, but I found a good place to end it, hehe. Next chapter will be coming soon! **

**Please let me know if there is anything Alex/Amber related that you would like for me to include in future chapters…any specific information about their past or things you want to see happen to them now. I am always open to ideas and I love working with you guys!**

**Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY!**

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"You're never going back there. You're staying with me now."

Amber instantly sat up straighter in her bed at hearing Alex's abrupt announcement. She stared at him, blinking a few times, at a complete loss for words.

"I'm serious, Amber," he added, sensing she still needed extra convincing.

But that was the last thing she needed. She'd come in here completely prepared to convince _him_ to let her stay. If she'd known that she'd only have to share one story, just about Greg, to persuade him, she would have willingly led with that story in the first place. That would have made everything so much simpler.

Unable to contain her smile, she replied truthfully, "I was kind of hoping you'd say that."

Alex half-smiled back, still unable to wrap his head fully around everything that had happened in the last hour. "So this was part of your plan all along?" he joked.

"Something like that," she laughed. There was a moment of silence as they both digested everything, thinking of what was coming ahead. Alex watched as Amber continued to pick at the loose thread sticking out of her sling. He looked at her—really looked at her—for the first time since she'd arrived. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a not-so-smooth pony tail, clearly much longer than she'd had when she was a kid. As a piece of hair fell out from behind her ear, she reflexively reached up to tuck it back in its place. Watching her action, he caught eye of a scar just over her eyebrow. If he'd had any doubts about this girl being his teenage sister, they were all put to rest now. There was no denying it now.

_"__Amber, get down," ten-year-old Aaron said with little emotion in his voice, not taking his gaze off the TV. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his little five-year-old sister standing on the armrest at the other end of the worn-down and stained brown couch._

_She jumped down onto the cushions and hopped a few steps over to him. "It's hot lava!" she exclaimed. "I gots to get to the kitchen and get food!"_

_"__There isn't any," he threw back flatly, not wanting to play along with yet another one of her 'baby' games as he called them._

_Amber's brow furrowed as she contemplated what he'd said. Not one to be thrown off track, she quickly declared as she jumped up and down, "Well, I'll go get the magic spoon that will turn things into food!" _

_"__Magic spoon?" he repeated indifferently._

_"__Yup," she confirmed, popping the 'p'. _

_Aaron just rolled his eyes and shook his head, annoyed that she was still bothering him with her childish stuff. All he wanted to do was finish his TV show because Alex was sure to be home soon and he would make them get ready for bed since it was already close to nine o'clock. _

_Amber walked back over to the end of the couch and positioned herself up on the armrest, bending her knees and staring intently at the dining room table that was just a few feet in front of her. _

_"__You won't make it," Aaron informed, not actually concerned if she went through with it or not. It wasn't _his_ job to be looking after her all the time. As he saw it, she was old enough to know not do stupid stuff like launch herself from furniture to furniture._

_She shook her head without removing her gaze from her new destination and started to swing her arms back and froth. "I can make it," she announced confidently. "Or I'll burn in the lava," she added, like she had no other choice in this matter. It was do or die. _

_Aaron didn't have a chance to add anything else before she thrusted herself off the couch, heading for the table. He watched in horror as she hadn't calculated the distance well and went crashing down toward the floor, just centimeters from the table. Unable to react in time, he gasped, observing in what seemed like slow motion as her temple slammed into the corner of the square, wooden table._

_Her body fell in a heap onto the floor. It took a few seconds for her to realize what had actually happened and then she felt a warm liquid run down the side of her face. Reaching up, she touched it and immediately panicked when she discovered it was blood. And seconds later an immense pain filled her head as cries and screams came pouring out of her mouth in a mix of fear and agony._

_By some miracle, Alex was almost home, just finishing up a shift at the supermarket in town. He was nearing the house on the sidewalk outside when he heard the blood-curling scream from inside. Feeling a sense of sheer panic and urgency, he took off sprinting the rest of the way and burst into the house, expecting to fight whoever was harming his little sister._

_As he stood in the doorway, he froze, spotting his sister sitting on the floor with both hands pressed against her temple as blood seeped out through them. Aaron was crouched down beside her, unsuccessfully trying to hush her cries. _

_Tossing the two plastic grocery bags carelessly on the couch, in a few quick strides, he was kneeling down beside them. "What did you do!?" Alex demanded, his voice loud and full of anger. He glared at Aaron before returning his attention to Amber._

_"__I…I didn't do anything!" he stuttered, nervously fumbling over his words as he saw the fire burning behind Alex's eyes. When Alex was pissed, _he was pissed_. Aaron knew he'd messed up and immediately regretted his prior indifference to what she had been doing._

_Gently pulling her hands away, Alex was able to see the full extent of her injury as blood continued to fall down the side of her face. "Damnit, Aaron! She probably needs stitches," he growled. He may not have been a doctor, but he had seen enough injuries in his day to know that._

_Aaron stood up and rushed to a nearby kitchen drawer to grab a towel. "We can just take her to the hospital," he offered as if it were such a simple solution while handing him the towel. His chest tightened with sharp pangs of guilt as he watched his sister continue to bawl. He had let her get hurt, and bad at that, and now his older brother was on a warpath and out for him._

_Take her to a hospital? Like it was that easy, Alex huffed in aggravation. Nothing was that easy for his family. "No, we can't _just_ go to the hospital," he spat. "Is mom even here?" He glanced over his shoulder, down the hallway toward her room. He never knew what kind of state she would be in when he came home from his five-hour shift at the store, let alone if she'd even be there._

_Aaron followed his gaze down the hall like some x-ray vision would suddenly appear and give him all the answers. "Uh, I think so? I think she's sleeping."_

_Alex narrowed his eyes and slightly nodded. Sleeping? That probably meant she was either too out of it to hear her daughter screaming in pain or she had taken one too many sleeping pills to cast her off into another dimension._

_"__Alex, let's just take her to get help," Aaron pleaded as he watched his brother pull her in close to his side, trying to calm her down._

_Alex continued to soothe her, applying pressure to the wound as he tried to form some kind of plan in his mind. She melted into his side, basking in the warm attention he was giving her, finding it comforting. Finally, her cries started to die down into stifling hiccups and silent tears._

_Even though her screams were no more, Alex didn't lower his voice. "__NO, we can't! Mom's not with it enough to take her anywhere. And if the three of us show up late at night with our banged up sister, don't you think they'll start asking questions?" he yelled. Doctors were sure to pry for details, given they were all still underage. And with their previous track record, red flags would surely be raised in all directions._

_"__But…"_

_Alex looked at him dead in the eye. "Do you _want_ to go back to foster care?!"_

Alex blinked a few times, trying to drown out the memory and bring his attention back to reality. That night had been the first time he'd really began to reconsider his plan to go away to college the following year. How could he trust Aaron to take care of Amber after that incident? The job to care for his family had been dumped on his shoulders before he was Aaron's age and Alex had had no choice in the matter then. So he'd had clear expectations that Aaron would be able to take it on too. But judging by the current state of his sister in front of him, Alex had been right all along. Aaron hadn't been able to take on the responsibility like he should have.

Amber glanced up and caught Alex looking at her. Their eyes met for a brief moment. Hers elated at her new living situation and his silently wondering what other secrets hid behind those green eyes.

Feeling his curious gaze burn into her, she averted her eyes. An overwhelming silence blanketed the room as the ticking clock and shuffling feet outside in the hall were the only things that could be heard.

"Does Mom know where you are?" he asked quietly, unsure if he really wanted to know the answer. The last thing he needed was his off-her-meds psychotic mom to storm through those doors and mess up everything he had going for him right now.

"She knows I left," she began, pausing to take a deep breath. "She won't come looking for me or call the cops, if that's what you're asking about."

"What makes you so sure?" he pried.

_Because it wouldn't be the first time I ran away for a little while_, she thought, but neglected to add. "Because she knows it's her fault," she stated matter-of-factly. "If she contacted anyone about me missing, questions would be asked and she knows that would bring hell down on our family." _Again_.

Alex nodded as he exhaled heavily in relief. "One less thing to worry about," he commented. Their file at CPS was already thick enough and he wasn't sure if they could even cram another piece of paper in it. "Why don't you—," he started to say, but was interrupted by someone knocking on the door, both of their heads turning in that direction.

Before either had a chance to say something, a middle-aged lady let herself into the room. She wore black dress pants and a white blouse with a red cardigan that screamed "danger" to Amber. Her ID was clipped onto her sweater and she carried a clipboard filled with papers in her free hand. She closed the door behind her and stepped over by Amber's bed.

The room was immediately filled with an air of tension. Amber adjusted herself in her seat to only end up like she had been sitting moments before. Heart racing, she wiped her sweaty hand along her jeans. She knew exactly who this lady was. They had been around so many of them their entire life…at home, in school, at hospitals and the police station…all over. She had developed a sixth sense for detecting them.

Feeling the eminent threat this lady was posing, Alex stood up and went to stand on the other side of her bed, near Amber and a few feet from the lady. He folded his arms across his chest, waiting for her to say something.

"Hi, I'm Shirley Johnson from social services. You must be the Jane Doe. It says here that Dr. Yang calls you…" she paused, scanning her papers. "Kathy. It's nice to meet you." She held out her hand, flashing an overly friendly smile.

Amber hesitated for a moment before reluctantly reaching out and shaking her hand, but she was frozen inside, all the words caught in her throat and nothing came out. Her eyes danced between her brother and this sudden obstacle that had just thrown itself between her and her new happiness.

The light at the end of the tunnel was quickly fading away as Amber felt her bright future slowly dissipating into an abyss as black as the lady's hair.


	5. Chapter 5

**Here is the next chapter! I made sure to throw in a couple of flashbacks because a few of you mentioned you liked them. More to come for sure :)**

**Also, this is a shameless plug for the Alex/OC story my wonderful friend sweetkiwi604 and I wrote together titled Life Won't Wait. You guys should check it out…you can find it under my "favorites" in my profile. Let us know what you think!**

**Okay, now on to the main attraction! Please let me know your thoughts…short, long, good, or bad…all comments help us improve and grow as writers. I also enjoy hearing your predictions! All reviews and comments are beyond appreciated! Thank you so much for your support in reviewing and adding this to your story favorites and alerts :)**

**Enjoy!**

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Amber may have been in shock, but Alex didn't miss a beat. "You must be mistaken. This patient's name is Amber, not Kathy," he replied smoothly as Amber managed to nod in agreement.

Shirley checked her paper before looking skeptically between the two of them again. "I understand that her name isn't really Kathy because Dr. Yang reported that she refused to say her real one so she gave her a nickname. Well, then I rephrase my earlier greeting. Nice to meet you, _Amber_," she said, flashing a simple grin.

Alex readjusted his shoulders and folded arms as he stared at the lady who apparently couldn't take a hint. "Like I said, you got the wrong patient," he stated flatly.

"Here it says 'teenage patient who came in with a broken wrist'." She glanced at Amber, raising her eyebrows at her casted arm resting in a sling.

"Yeah because at a hospital as big as this one, there can't be more than one broken wrist at a time," he scoffed.

Her posture immediately changed at his hostile response and tone. "I'm sorry, Dr…"

"Karev."

"Well, Dr. Karev, I'm sure you know that it's my job to look into…"

Alex cut her off, not needing to hear her entire spiel. "There's no need for that," he began as he took a step closer to her. "I know for a fact that you have the wrong person and what you are trying to imply here is quite frankly offensive." Her brows furrowed at his confusing words. "This is Amber…_Karev_." He paused, letting the words sink in. Then he added as an afterthought in case it hadn't been clear enough. "She's my sister. So I'm not sure what you're trying to get at by barging in here."

Clearly taken off guard by his sudden confession, Shirley adjusted her stance, trying to hold herself high. "Oh, I see. My apologies, Dr. Karev." She took a step backwards as she flashed an apologetic smile to Amber. "I should find Dr. Yang and see if she can't straighten the details out and clear up the confusion," she finished before excusing herself from the room.

Amber exhaled loudly, not even realizing she had been holding her breath. "It's like they can sense our family drama from a mile away. They flock to us!" she joked, trying to get rid of the tension that'd filled the room.

Alex chuckled slightly as he sat down at the end of her bed. "Guess it helps that you have such a hot shot surgeon for a brother now."

Now it was her turn to laugh and roll her eyes. "Yeah, still a mystery how his head even fits through the O.R. door," she jabbed.

Amber threw her head back against the bed, pausing for a moment as she looked at the ceiling before returning her attention to Alex. "Can you imagine? Me in foster care at my age? I'm scared just thinking about the crap family that'd offer to take me in again," she thought out loud. A few years ago, it had been bad enough…there was no telling what it'd be like now.

Alex felt a shiver run down his spine. Of course _he_ could imagine it. He'd been in and out of foster care for the better part of his mid-teenage years, but Amber had been too young to really remember all the details like he did.

_Alex had recently turned fifteen and he found himself sitting in the same familiar cheap, folding chair as he had many times before. His leg nervously bounced up and down in anticipation of what was to come during this trip to the child service's office. He glanced over at his siblings, who were playing with a tub of legos nearby. Amber giggled playfully as the tower she and Aaron had built went tumbling over. In only two and a half years, she had been here countless times and she almost seemed to enjoy it more than their own house because here, they had more toys to play with. Aaron was about to turn eight, old enough to truly understand what was going to happen, but he didn't seem affected by it. He and Alex stole a quick, worried, glace, but Alex threw him a reassuring smile, more for his own sake than anything._

_Just then, the bells chimed as a young couple strolled in holding hands. He watched as their social worker walked over to joyfully greet them before guiding them to a nearby table. It was the same process as always. Annette, their social worker, would find a "kind and loving" family to take them in until they could declare their mother fit to care for them once again. It was an endless cycle and he knew it by heart, but just something about this time had made him nervous…there was something off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it._

_After many never-ending minutes, the couple and Annette finally stood up after they'd signed a stack of papers and they started to walk over to the kids. Knowing the awkward introductions and the false promises that they'd be happy were to come, Alex also stood up, helping his sibling put the toys away. He protectively picked up his sister and balanced her on his hip and pulled his brother in closer to his side, marking his territory. He hated it when these families would come and pick up his sister, cooing at how adorable she was…like she was some pet or doll they could play with. No, it was better he let them know from the start who was in charge here._

_"Aaron, Amber, I'd like you to meet Mike and Lisa Wilkerson," Annette began as the couple joyfully waved and smiled from ear to ear. "They're here to take you both back to their wonderful home."_

_Alex's brow furrowed in confusion, not sure if she had forgotten to throw his name into the introduction or if maybe he'd just missed it. Before he had a chance to speak up, Lisa reached out both arms toward Amber, motioning for her to come. Alex instinctively took a step away from her, announcing, "And I'm their older brother, Alex." Just to be clear everyone knew._

_Sensing the hostility in his tone and stance, Annette stepped closer and said softly, "Yes, you are sweetie, and your foster family will be here any time now."_

_Alex stared at her like she'd just said the world was ending, his face blank and stoic. It took a few moments for the words to register and when they did, his grip instinctively tightened around his sister as she nuzzled into his neck and then he clasped his other hand onto Aaron's shirtsleeve. That meant they were going to be separated…and his family wasn't even here yet…which only meant one thing in his years of experience: the foster family that showed up late, didn't give a crap about the kid, it was all about the money and that scared him._

_"No, you're mistaken. We are all going together. You said so!" he persisted._

_"Alex, I never said that…I only said that I would do everything possible to not split you three up, but unfortunately this time it didn't work out. I'm sure you'll be able to visit them though."_

_All eyes were on the couple now as Mike shifted uncomfortably under Alex's burning gaze. "Of course we'll find a way for you to see them," Lisa said, but Alex didn't miss her fake tone._

_"Unfortunately, we just don't have enough room to take three kids in right now," Mike added, feeling the need to defend themselves before him._

_Alex narrowed his gaze, seeing right through the lies. Of course they had the room, but who wanted to take in a rebellious fifteen year old when they had the choice to foster two smaller, and quite honestly probably better behaved, kids? But no, this was not happening because the second they got separated was the second he wasn't able to be there to protect them if harm should come their way, and he didn't doubt that it would for a moment._

_"No," Alex said in a low, threatening tone._

_"But, Alex, look, it's…" Annette began, trying to smooth things over before it inevitably broke out into a fight._

_"Where they go, I go," he demanded, leaving no room for arguing._

_Annette felt her shoulders and neck tense up at what was coming. Alex wouldn't be the first overprotective brother to come through her office and he surely wouldn't be the last, but it never failed that these fights would get out of hand rather quickly, and this whole process was to be a smooth and drama-free as possible so there were no irreversible scars left on the kids. So she motioned for the policeman standing by the door to come over, hoping it didn't come to that but she had to be prepared for anything._

_"Alex, let's allow these nice people to take Amber and Aaron home and we can sit down and talk about some visitation…," she offered._

_"No."_

_"Well, if anything, let's not make a scene in front of them, okay?" she persuaded._

_And the next thing he knew, Annette had reached out for Aaron's hand and quickly pulled him from Alex's grasp as Mike reached over to pick him up, telling him about all the different toys they had at home for him._

_Then the rest happened in what seemed like slow motion. Annette latched on to Amber, saying something soothing so she'd willingly let go of Alex. He didn't even have time to respond before the police offer gripped his upper arm and started hauling him off toward a room down the hall. "Stop it!" he yelled, but try as he might, he couldn't rip his arm from the officer's firm clasp as he stumbled over his own feet being dragged away._

_All of the commotion and watching her brother fight as he was pulled away scared Amber and she started to cry. "It's going to be okay," Lisa cooed as she bounced the little girl on her hip._

_But her cries only made Alex want to fight harder. The officer harshly grabbed onto both of his arms, shoving him along in front of him, but Alex kept his head turned around, trying to catch any last glimpses he could._

_Aaron watched in shock as his older brother thrashed against the officer to get free…he _had_ to get to them. They wouldn't be save without him…what if something happened to them and he wasn't there? What if he didn't see them for a long time? Alex's eyes flashed with sheer panic as he was yanked around the corner, fully disappearing from their sight._

But that wasn't ever going to happen again. Now that she was sitting here with him for the first time in years, he would be damned if Cristina didn't pull her shit together and get this social services lady off their case. He wasn't going to stand by and have her ripped away and thrown back into the system again.

He stared at her, his brow furrowed as her last statement rung through his mind again: _I'm scared just thinking about the crap family that'd offer to take me in again_. She'd been in foster care again? Why was he never contacted? He was beyond legal age now and someone should have called him! He opened his mouth to ask her more details, but she quickly cut him off.

"I think I need a shower or something so they don't mistake me for that Kathy girl again." She glanced down at her clothes. "I mean I really _do_ look like the teenage runaway that I really am."

Alex nodded in agreement. Maybe that would make things easier, but made a mental note to casually bring up that topic later. "How about I take you to the doctor's longue so you can shower and change clothes while I finish up my shift?"

"I can't," she said, almost embarrassed, avoiding eye contact.

"Can't what? Take a shower? You do know that casts are water proof now." He paused, waiting for her to say something.

"What? Of course I know that. What I meant was I can't change my clothes."

Alex blinked a few times in disbelief, before responding, "You can't change your clothes?! God, Amber, I don't care if all your limbs were broken, I'm not helping you take off—"

"Stop it, Alex!" she interjected, her face scrunched up in disgust at the mere mention of that. "I can't change them because I only have a spare shirt, that's it."

"Oh." He paused. "I'll just swipe some scrubs for you." Instantly picking up on her flushed cheeks, he added, trying to lighten the mood, "Just no going around pretending to be a doctor."

She half smiled before grabbing her bag and following him out of the room.

* * *

Amber stepped out of the bathroom and into the large doctor's lounge, full of cubbies, a couch, a few lounging chairs, and a table filled with all kinds of magazines. Her damp, long brown hair hung over her shoulders. The light blue scrubs hung loosely on her hips as she had to pull the strings as tight as they could go. Even though it was the smallest size they had, her body was lost within the excess fabric of the shirt. She smiled, finally feeling clean and like a proper human being again after three long days without a proper shower. Life on the run was never easy.

She glanced at the clock: thirty minutes. She'd showered for thirty minutes. She shrugged, not surprised in the least. She'd been lucky enough to get hot water in their house most days, so who could blame her for basking in the hot water of a shower that wasn't even hers.

And now she only had another thirty minutes until Alex said he'd be ready to go. Looking for something to pass the time, she decided to aimlessly wander around the room, observing the cubbies. Stopping when she'd realized which one was Alex's, she quickly glanced over her shoulder to make sure the coast was clear. She hesitated for a moment, debating whether this was a good idea or not. After convincing herself there was no harm in it, she began to rummage through his things, hoping to find something that would help her piece together the last few years of his life.

Gum wrappers, random research articles and pamphlets on cancer and pediatric surgeries, receipts from the cafeteria, a few small coins…it was clear he hadn't cleaned it out anytime recently. As she dug deeper into the heaping pile of junk, that's when she spotted it: a picture of a woman with short, blonde hair and a purple blouse. Her smile was soft and inviting, like she'd been laughing right before the picture was taken. She looked happy.

Amber didn't have any more time to analyze the picture because someone opened the door and their lively conversation filled the once quiet room. She quickly shoved the picture back under the clutter before turning around.

"Oh hey, it's Kathy again," Cristina said with false amusement as she threw herself down on the couch.

"_Amber_," Meredith corrected.

"Nah, Kathy is way better," she replied nonchalantly as Amber flashed them a quick smile.

Meredith threw Amber an apologetic look before sitting down next to her friend, tossing a few M&amp;M's in her mouth in the process. "Want some?" she offered, holding out the bag.

Unable to resist the urge to eat something, she hastily accepted as she sat down in a chair across from them. She savored the taste, not having eaten them for so long.

_"You only had one thing to do, Amber. _One. Thing_," Alex bit as he paced back and forth in the kitchen with his arms firmly across his chest._

_"But…" ten-year-old Amber tried to defend herself, but Alex wasn't having any of it. She immediately adverted her gaze to the stained kitchen tile as he raged on, absolutely hating it when he was mad at her._

_"I come home from college for two days to give you guys what little money I was able to scrounge up. And I gave you one _simple _task. Go buy some damn milk at the corner store. Was it really that hard?!" His voice rose with every sentence. Even though Amber couldn't see his face, she knew he was staring at her, his eyes burning into the top of her head as he waited for an answer. She slightly nodded, knowing he was right. He threw his arms up in exasperation before continuing to rant, "But no, here you come, walking through that door with no milk in sight and not one, but _two_ fucking bags of M&amp;Ms." He paused to take a breath. "I don't know what stupid scheme you and Aaron have going on, but when I ask you to go get—"_

_"But, Alex, one of the bags is for you." Her innocent green eyes stared back at him, silently pleading for him to not be angry with her anymore. "We wanted to get them for you instead of milk 'cause they're your favorite."_

Amber slowly munched away at her candy as she waited for someone to break the ice.

"So you're evil spawn's little sister," Cristina stated matter-of-factly, as if she needed to say it out loud to confirm it was the truth.

Amber's eyes danced between the two of them. "Evil spawn?"

"It's what we-," she paused after receiving an elbow in the ribs from Meredith, "I mean, it's what _I_ call your brother." Amber's confused look encouraged her to elaborate further. "You see, Alex is what most would call….a jackass."

"Cristina!" Meredith scolded.

"What?" she threw back indifferently. "If this girl grew up with Alex, I'm sure she's heard way worse cuss words than that," she defended, plopping her feet up on the coffee table separating them.

"But it's her brother! You can't say that about him," Meredith reproached, feeling slightly embarrassed, as Amber watched on.

"So I should just say it behind her back then?" Cristina asked with a hint of a smirk. Meredith just rolled her eyes, giving up on this lost cause. "Oh I'm sorry, Glenda the good witch here likes to sugarcoat things. She'll probably tell you we all just adore Alex. But when you're ready for the truth, you come to me," she added flatly.

Noticing how quickly Amber had devoured the candy, Meredith handed over the rest of the bag. "Here, you finish them. I've had way too many already." She paused. "And what Cristina was trying to say is that sometimes Alex can be a little…difficult."

"Or pigheaded, stubborn, annoying…" Cristina trailed off before Meredith smacked her arm. "But I'm sure you already know all this."

Amber shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "Actually I didn't. I mean… I don't know him very well, that is."

"Oh, so is this one of those funny, long lost sibling from another mother stories? Mer over here found out she had one of those not too long ago."

Meredith stared at her. Sometimes it never ceased to amaze her what actually came out of her mouth.

"No, it's not like that. He's my real brother. We grew up together…but he's just been distant lately." _Only for the last seven years, but who was counting_. "Busy focusing on his career and all," she added. Her heart raced as the words came out of her mouth. Judging by the few choice words they used to describe her brother, he wasn't exactly everybody's favorite person, although that didn't surprise her in the least. Alex had always been a little rough around the edges…which was probably why he tended to rub people the wrong way everywhere he went.

When neither of them asked for more details about their relationship, she breathed a sigh of relief. Things could have gotten very complicated very fast had they tried to open up that can of worms and she was sure Alex wanted to keep hidden as much as he could.

"So do you just live with your mom?" Meredith pried, trying to get any details she could out of her. But Amber didn't miss her quick glance toward her cast and she realized the questions came with a hidden meaning—to try and piece together her story.

Amber opened her mouth to respond, but was silenced as someone else came barging through the door. Her shoulders relaxed when she saw it was Alex—there to save her yet again and to deflect the attention off of her.

He instantly picked up on her eyes that were graciously thanking him for being there. He glanced at Meredith and Cristina casually resting on the couch and noticed their slightly guilty looks, like two kids caught stealing from the cookie jar. "What are you two doing? Don't you work anymore?" he remarked.

Cristina threw him an annoyed, bitch face as she and Meredith stood up. "Hey, I save way more lives than you," she added for good measure.

Alex folded his arms across his chest, narrowing his eyes. "Only in your dreams."

Cristina was about to answer, but Meredith gave her a forceful shove toward the door. "Come on, let's get going." She threw a quick wave at Amber before they both disappeared down the hall.

Alex made his way over to his cubby, and Amber felt her breath get caught in her throat. Would he realize she'd gone hunting through his things?

Not noticing anything was amiss, he tossed his lab coat and stethoscope into the cubby before grabbing his own bag. "You remember to wash behind your ears?" he threw over his shoulder playfully.

"You're hilarious," she shot back, standing up and throwing her bag over her shoulder.

"I mean, you did smell pretty bad," he joked as he opened up the door and motioned for her to go first.

She hesitated for a moment, staring at him as she contemplated his words. "I didn't smell _that _bad." He didn't say anything, but his raised eyebrows and uncertain look spoke for itself. "Okay, fine, but I _know_ you've seen way worse come through those doors."

Alex couldn't help but let a small laugh escape as they walked down the hall toward the elevator. "You got me there, but new rule is you shower every day."

Amber placed her hand against her chest, pretending to be insulted. "I'm offended you feel the need to state that," she said, stepping onto the elevator.

"Says the girl who begged, pleaded, and bargained with me every night to get out of taking a bath," he quipped, flashing her his infamous grin.

It was hard not to smile along with him at the silly debate they were having. As the silver doors closed, she couldn't help but feel her smile grow from ear to ear. It didn't matter that she had no idea where he lived or what his house was going to look like, because she had a strong feeling that this might actually work out…like she had a future ahead of her…and for the first time in a _very_ long time, she felt like she would be safe from all the things that haunted her past.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, all you wonderful readers! A HUGE HUGE thank you to everyone who has left a review or added this story to their favorites and story alerts. Your support means the world to me! I'm glad you are enjoying this story. **

**Many, many apologies for taking so long to update. I won't bore you with the stories of how crazy life is (I think we can all relate!)…but I am happy to be back to this story again.**

**This chapter is kind of a transition chapter, so I apologize if there isn't much action. I can't thank you guys enough for sticking with me. Please let me know if there are specific flashbacks or things you want to see happened between Amber/Alex. I love hearing from you guys :)**

**I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!**

* * *

Amber stood in the foyer, looking around at everything. Even though Alex had already given her the grand tour of the place he was currently living at, she still hadn't been fully able to take it all in. There were all kinds of rooms in this house, not to mention he lived here with other people.

"Don't stare too long, you might pull something," he joked as he brushed by her, going into the kitchen.

Pulled from her trance, she shook her head and quickly followed behind him. "I'm pretty sure I'll get lost trying to find the bathroom." Amber sat down at the counter while Alex made his way around to the other side.

"It's not _that_ big," he chuckled. This wasn't _his_ house per se, but he hadn't exactly come out and said that. He mentioned other people lived here with him though. Surely she would figure it out sooner or later, but even if it was just for a second, he enjoyed pretending like this place was all his…like a weird urge to prove to his sister that he'd been even more successful than they'd ever imagined. That he'd finally made something of himself. Maybe someday he'd be able to own a place like this, one that was literally four times the size of their house growing up in Iowa.

"Yeah, right. I'm going to need to use the GPS on my phone just to," she hesitated, before finishing quietly, "get around."

Noticing her sudden change in tone, Alex took a break from scouring the fridge to glance over at her. Her shoulders had fallen forward as she continued to pick at the same, loose thread, her nervous habit he'd quickly picked up on at the hospital. "What?" he prompted, prying for information.

"Well, I just re-remembered that I can't do that."

"Don't worry, understanding technology has never been a staple Karev trait," he replied nonchalantly before staring into the fridge again, trying to see what good leftovers the others had for him to "borrow."

"No, I forgot that I don't have a phone anymore."

"Left it in Iowa?"

"Not exactly," she paused. "Someone stole it out of my bag at the first bus stop." Her brow furrowed in anger as she recalled the whole thing. "And then my last $5 for food disappeared too," she added as an afterthought.

Alex closed the fridge, turning to give her his full attention. It was the abrupt realization that his little sister hadn't exactly arrived to his front door in a luxury limo. He hadn't even considered how a teenager made it 2,000 miles across the country. "How long has it been since you last ate?" he tried to sound indifferent, like he wasn't actually concerned, but his facial expressions told a different story.

"I had a yogurt at the hospital today. Thanks for that, by the way." She flashed him an overly eager smile as she tried to draw the attention away from the subject, but his eyebrows shot up, silently telling her that wasn't the information he was asking about. "Eh, before that…I picked something up at the gas station the other day," she explained vaguely. And by "the other day" she meant almost two days ago.

"I thought you didn't have any money?" he countered.

"I did. I said I _picked_ it up, like literally _picked _it up and shoved it in my pocket." Alex shifted his stance. Disappointment was written all over his face as Amber thought it was directed at her, but in reality, it was sheer disappointment in himself. "What?" she shot back defensively. She sat back in her chair, crossing her arms. "Don't act like you've never done it. I may have been little, but I wasn't stupid."

_Amber sat at the kitchen table, fervently coloring away in one of Alex's notebooks that he'd left discarded on the counter earlier. She was on the verge of starting Kindergarten soon and was determined to perfect her coloring skills. Meanwhile Aaron sat on the edge of the couch, eyes glued to the latest evening episode of the _Power Rangers_. Their mom had left not too long ago for another dead-end, job at one of the factories in town, threatening them to behave and not do anything stupid until their brother got home soon._

_Everything was just fine until there was a knock at the door. Aaron and Amber sat up straighter at the sudden interruption, their eyes locking for a moment. That couldn't be their mom or Alex because there'd be no need to knock, and they'd both been sure to tell them never to open for strangers. Aaron wouldn't have had a second thought about it, but then someone banged again, announcing, "This is the police. Open up."_

_Unsure if it could be true, Aaron snuck over to a nearby window and peeked over the bottom. Sure enough, there stood Alex with his hands cuffed behind his back, staring down at the pavement. A uniformed officer stood on either side of him, one with a firm clasp on his upper arm. _

_"I told you nobody's home," Alex muttered under his breath as he struggled against the hold, willing them to take him back to the car and go to the station. The officer said nothing, only responded by tightening his grip. Alex had spotted the clock in the squad car on the way over here…5:42pm. He knew his mom was already at work and if all _this_ hadn't happened, he would have been home awhile ago…but now that meant there were two little children home alone and he was sure the cops wouldn't overlook that._

_"Mrs. Karev, we have your son in custody. Open up," the other officer tried again._

_Alex could hear the unmistakable whispers of his siblings through the crappy walls of their house as they discussed whether to open or not. Using their childish logic, they decided Alex had probably forgotten his keys and that's why the cops had to bring him. They both went over to the door as Aaron turned the key to unlock it and pulled off the metallic chain before opening it. The officers were met with two pairs of wide eyes as they took in the sight before them._

_Nobody said anything, Amber and Aaron smiling at their brother whose face had become deathly white._

_Taken off guard that two young kids had opened the door, the officer finally recovered and asked kindly, "Hi, guys. I'm Officer Smith. Is your mother around?"_

_They both shook their heads as Aaron replied, "No, she's at work."_

_"And your dad?"_

_"We don't have a daddy," Amber explained._

_The officers shared a quick, knowing glance that was impossible for Alex to miss. "So it's just you two here then?" the officer asked, trying to sound gentle._

_Before either had a chance to tell them "yes," Alex spoke up, "Well they wouldn't be here alone if you two morons hadn't—" Another strong jerk on his upper arm cut him off mid-sentence._

_"Looks like you and your big mouth aren't the only ones riding down to the station with us," Officer Jones commented, his tone almost mocking. He harshly began to drag Alex back down the sidewalk toward the patrol car while the other officer coaxed the other two kids into coming along._

_Continuing to drag him along, Officer Jones muttered in a low tone at Alex, "Mr. Baker is pressing charges on your sorry ass. Maybe this time you'll learn your lesson." He'd heard about this teenager before, this wasn't his first time being dragged to the police station, but it was the first time Jones had been able to do it. The story with these kinds of kids was usually the same…messed up adolescents who come from messed up families. Never learn their lesson until someone finally decides to press charges on them and not let them slide by in life. _

_As they were halfway down the sidewalk leading to the curb, the pitter-patter of Amber's tennis shoes resounded on the cement. Seconds later, a mop of unruly wavy brown hair appeared beside Alex. "Where we going?" she asked, needing to hear it from him. Alex immediately forced the officer to slow his stride to match hers. He quickly glanced behind him to see Aaron following along with the other officer._

_"To the police station," Alex replied matter-of-factly._

_"How come?" she asked innocently._

Because I stole some food that we don't have the money to buy _was what he should have said, but how do you explain that kind of thing to your innocent, oblivious little sister? So he opted for the easy way out and simply stated, "Because I said so."_

_Officer Jones waited for the little girl to ask him "_why"_ again, but he was shocked when she simply commented, "M'kay." Accepting what he'd said like it were the law and there were no other options._

_Just then, Jones felt another tug against his grip on Alex's arm, only this time it wasn't harsh but instead soft, like he were trying to reach something behind his back. Curious, he glanced over his shoulder to see Alex uncomfortably stretching his hands behind his back closer to his sister as she reflexively reached up to grab his hand just as they were about to cross the street to the squad car._

_And for a fleeting moment, Officer Jones thought he might have been wrong about Alex. But that thought only lasted a second, because he knew they were all the same._

"Yeah, and I got send to juvie for it!" Alex exclaimed, his voice more agitated than he expected. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea of her in jail or even doing anything that would cause her to be arrested. Why had their childhoods turned out to be so similar when he had tried so hard to change the cycle? But no, here she was telling him she'd stolen food because she didn't have the money to buy any and she lived with a junkie mom who had let her get to that point. It was the same story, different verse.

Just as Amber was about to respond, Meredith came into the kitchen, cheerful as ever and had obviously overheard the latter part of their conversation. "Alex went to juvie? I mean I can picture that with your whole bas ass attitude, but—," she commented, but was abruptly cut off.

"What? No!" Alex lied almost too eagerly.

Meredith paused as she put a bag of popcorn into the microwave and turned it on. "But you just said…"

"No, I didn't. I said I went to…," he hesitated as his brain struggled for a lie.

Amber watched the whole scene unfold in slow motion. How creases formed on Alex's forehead as he struggled to come up with something…_anything_…and how his voice faltered. The sudden realization that his friends must have had _no_ idea what their lives were like hit her like a freight train and she couldn't stand there and let this ship sink.

"_Julie_, not juvie. Mom would send us to Aunt Julie's when we'd get in trouble. Might as well have been juvie…working on the farm and all." As Meredith took in what she was saying, Alex shook his head in disbelief at what was coming out of her mouth. It was at least halfway plausible…all his friends believed Iowa was a wasteland of pig farms and whatnot anyway.

Meredith glanced between the two of them, trying to decide if she believed this story. Wanting to throw some more credibility on it, Alex added, "Yeah, I think I've shoveled enough cow shit for one lifetime."

Meredith tried to stifle a laugh at picturing all of this. "Well, you're definitely full of that." She caught Amber's eyes and instantly regretted saying her brother was full of shit. She'd given Cristina a hard time about bashing him in front of his sister and here she was, doing the same thing.

Noticing her expression and not wanting her to feel bad, Amber smiled and added, "Always has been." Even though that was purely a lie because she had no idea what he was like, but judging by how people gave him a hard time about his lack of kindness, she was starting to piece together a version of him that was different than the one she'd pictured as he'd signed all those checks.

Meredith pulled out her popcorn. Realizing that neither of them had any food, she asked playfully, "So is Alex cooking tonight?"

"He cooks?" It was more of a genuine question than a sarcastic remark. Growing up, he had been the master chef of anything that came in a box and eggs. Scrambled, fried, over-easy, hard boiled…and even when their stove had crapped out, he had mastered the art of making eggs in the microwave.

"Well I've never actually seen it because he normally just eats everyone else's food. But for your sake, I hope so," she laughed before smiling and heading out toward the stairs.

Alex strained his neck a little, making sure Meredith was up the stairs before turning his attention back to his sister. "So you were saying…," he prompted, wanting her to pick up where she had left off with more information.

"That we're both delinquents," she chuckled.

"You were telling me how you got here," he said flatly.

"No I wasn't."

Rolling his eyes in annoyance, he knew he had to be more direct. "Well I was about to ask you to tell me then."

"Okay." There was a beat of silence as Alex waited for her to elaborate more.

When she didn't show any indication of speaking, he show back, "What?!"

"What what?" she repeated, clearly stalling the conversation.

"How about you start telling the story," he requested, his voice showing his patience was wearing thin.

"But you never asked me. Technically you said you were _about_ to ask me, but you failed to actually do so."

"Oh for the love of god, Amber. Why are you avoiding my question?"

"The question you never asked?"

"You're stalling," he said with exasperation, no longer able to hide his annoyance.

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not."

Alex refused to follow her childish game. He rested both hands on the counter, leaning in closer to her, even though they were still separated. His eyes narrowed at her persistence at dodging his question. He was about to say something out of irritation, but just then someone else walked into the kitchen.

"Oh hey, Alex," Derek Shepherd said nonchalantly as he made his way over to the sink to get a glass of water.

Amber's eyes widened as she instantly recognized him as the guy she'd met earlier in the elevator. _He lived here too?_

After filling his glass with water, Derek turned around, leaning up against the sink to drink it. He paused mid-sip as he realized someone else was sitting in the kitchen. He hesitated for a moment but knew he had seen her earlier. "And you're…elevator girl?"

"In the flesh," she confirmed.

"Did you meet the entire hospital before you found me?" Alex interjected, half annoyed, half flabbergasted.

Glancing between the two of them, he'd clearly missed some information because first off, when he'd met her she didn't have a cast and wasn't wearing scrubs and two, there was clearly some connection he missed because she was now in their house. "I'm sorry…how do you guys know each other?"

"Oh, uh, sorry. Derek, this is my younger sister, Amber."

Derek took a few steps toward her, reaching out his hand to shake her free one. "Nice to meet you, properly this time. I wasn't aware you had any siblings, Alex," he commented.

"Yeah, well, now you do," he said flatly.

"Are you in town visiting?" he asked, trying to make conversation as he continued drinking.

"Yeah, I think I'll be visiting for a little bit," she said. Because that's all this was to her: _a visit_. She knew it would come to an end eventually, as all good things did, so why say _I'm living here now_ or _I'm moving in with Alex because my mom's boyfriend broke my arm_. There was no point.

Sensing some sort of tension between the two, Derek took that as his cue to leave. "Well, I'll leave you two alone. Night, guys."

They both replied "good night" as he disappeared up the stairs.

Alex looked at Amber, defeated. He had just started to find out a little more about her and Meredith had marched in there and brought their conversation to an abrupt halt. Then he had tried to bring it up again and had failed miserably because of her strong urge to divert the conversation and refuse to acknowledge his question. By this point, any attempt to bring it up again would just make him look overly desperate for information and he didn't want to risk pushing her away. There was obviously something there, but it would have to wait.

He sighed heavily before he silently scanned the fridge one last time, praying something had appeared since the last time he'd checked, but no such luck. He grabbed the only thing he could find, closed the door, and turned to face her, shrugging his shoulders. "Eggs it is then," he announced, holding up a brown carton.

* * *

An hour later, Alex stood in the doorway of his room as Amber sat on the bed, her bag tossed down beside her. "So…if you need anything, I'll be downstairs," he said.

"I can sleep on the couch. This is your bed after all," she offered yet again, feeling slightly guilty.

"No, don't worry about it. I have to get up early anyway."

"Oh." Disappointment laced her voice. "You work tomorrow?" The thought of spending the day alone in this huge, strange house didn't seem too appealing.

"Yeah. I go in around five tomorrow morning. I'll be home late too, but I have the next day off. So we can take you to get some better fitting clothes." He nodded toward the over-sized scrubs she was wearing. He had no idea where the extra money would come from, but at least he still had one credit card that wasn't maxed out.

"So a tube top and leather pants then?" The right side of her mouth pulled into a half smile.

He let out a small chuckle in disbelief. She was a lot wittier than he remembered, but then again, she hadn't even been a teenager the last time he really knew her. He felt like he was getting to know a whole new person. "No, not that tight." His brow furrowed up at the mere thought. Yes, she might be like a stranger to him, but that didn't mean he'd ever let a sister of his dress like that.

"Guess I'll have all day to rethink my wardrobe then."

"Good luck with that," he began, shifting the weight from one foot to the other as he was getting ready to leave. "I'll put my number and the hospital's by the phone in the kitchen. Call if you need anything. I'll leave some money for you to order a pizza tomorrow, too."

Amber's eyebrows rose at the generous offer and how his voice actually showed that he cared. For everyone saying that he was an ass, he was really thoughtful toward her.

Not really sure how to say goodnight to him, she just threw him a smile and awkward wave, mumbling a quick good night and sleep well as he did the same in return.

He turned to leave and hesitated, still in the doorway, as though he were contemplating saying something else. She watched as his neck muscles tensed up, seemingly resisting the urge to turn around. Whatever he wanted to say, he swallowed it down, walking out into the hall and closing the door behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's the next chapter! It kind of took on a life of its own as I was writing it, haha. Let me know what you think! I more than welcome ideas for things you'd like to see in future chapters. I love hearing from you wonderful readers! Thank you to everyone for your continued support by reviewing or adding this story to your alerts/favorites. It motivates me to keep going!**

**A very special thank you to mandyg67 and sweetkiwi604 for their ideas used in this chapter :) You all are amazing in helping this story progress! I appreciate it beyond belief!**

**Read, review, but most importantly ENJOY!**

* * *

A few rays of sunshine burst through the crack of the curtains as wind coming in through the cracked window tossed them around. Amber squeezed her eyes shut, willing the light to go away and for her body to drift back into a deep slumber. She hadn't been able to sleep well that first night. She'd spent the first few hours trying to figure out how she could sleep without making her arm throb in pain any more than it already was. It had been a while since her last broken wrist and she seemed to have forgotten all the tricks. After she'd finally managed to fall asleep, the sun and its glimmering rays of light refused to let her continue.

Groaning, she rolled over and sighed when she realized it was only 7:32 a.m. "Where has the day gone," she muttered, forcing herself to sit up and just give in to it.

There was a light tap on the door as someone's shadow covered the light underneath the door. "Yeah?" she asked, confused who it could be since Alex should already be at work by now.

The door slightly cracked open and Meredith stuck her head in, almost scared that she was intruding. "I thought I heard you were up." She smiled, opening the door further and stepping inside. "I brought you a few clothes you can try on," she said, placing a stack of shorts and t-shirts down beside her.

"Thank you," Amber replied. "That's very kind of you." Very kind for a person she'd just met, but she wrote it off as her having a big heart.

"Hopefully something fits," she added.

There was a beat of silence, neither knowing what else to say. "Well, I'm going to shower and try these on. Thanks again," Amber announced, standing up and walking over to pick up a towel Alex had left her. She turned and paused, feeling her cheeks burn red hot with embarrassment. "Uh, could you remind me again where the bathroom is?"

Meredith tried to hold back a laugh. "Don't feel bad. Alex had a hard time figuring it all out too." They both chuckled as Meredith led her down the hall to the bathroom. "I'm making pancakes downstairs, so feel free to join us when you're done," she invited cheerfully.

Amber couldn't turn down a generous offer for food and before she knew it, she replied, "That sounds great."

* * *

After what seemed like a gymnastics performance worthy of the Olympics, Amber had managed to twist and turn her way into a pair of black shorts and a white top, all with a painful broken wrist.

Walking downstairs, she timidly walked into the kitchen, unsure what she'd find. Meredith and Derek were both sitting down at the table, he was reading the newspaper and she, checking something on her laptop. There was a stack of pancakes sitting in the center, with maple syrup and three glasses of orange juice waiting.

"Oh hey! Come have a seat," Derek motioned for her to come over.

"Glad to see something fit," Meredith added, shutting her laptop.

"Yeah, thanks again," Amber said. She sat down delicately, not want to break anything at this picture perfect table. It was almost too "perfect" for her…like it was all a dream. Suddenly noticing that their plates were still empty, she spoke up, "You didn't have to wait on me."

"We wanted to," Derek replied, flashing her a quick grin before holding out a plate of pancakes in front of her. "How many would you like?"

"Um, one is fine," she responded, not wanting to overstep.

"Ok, three it is then," he smirked, tossing three chocolate chip pancakes down on her plate. Amber just smiled, not wanting to refuse his offer. She'd really wanted more than that, but didn't want to risk looking greedy in front of these nice strangers.

Derek took a bite of his food before tuning back to Amber, saying, "So Alex Karev has a little sister."

Amber quickly swallowed her food before answering, "The one and only." She gently placed a napkin across her lap, recalling every bit of etiquette she'd learned. She felt like she was trying to impress them, like this was her new foster family and she wanted them to like her back.

Taking advantage that Derek had already touched on the subject, Amber was filled with a sudden burst of confidence, deciding to ask the one question that had been bothering her all night long. She had made all kinds of inferences, but she needed a direct answer, for someone to confirm what she already knew. "So Alex never told you about me before?"

Had he just pretended that she never existed in his attempt to escape his own past? Is that why he'd left her and Aaron behind, only with the monthly checks to show he was still alive?

Seemingly unfazed by such a loaded question, Meredith replied, "Alex has never been one to pillow talk with friends."

Determined not to let her sadness show, she slapped on a fake smile, letting out a small chuckle in the process. "Yeah, he's never been that way," she commented offhandedly.

There was a moment of quietness as everyone continued eating their breakfast. After a few minutes, Amber asked, "So you're both surgeons, too?" She wanted to learn more about these two. They were so friendly and welcoming, starting to make her think differently about the stereotypical, stuck-up doctor. They nodded modestly in response to her question. "What area?"

"I'm going into general surgery," Meredith answered before sipping on her coffee again.

"I'm a neurosurgeon," Derek replied with a smile.

Amber had to wipe her mouth with a napkin just to discretely make sure her jaw hadn't dropped to the floor. She was relieved to see that she'd managed to control her surprise. All these years she'd made Alex out to be a neurosurgeon in her fantasy world, but that turned out to be just that—a fantasy. She'd never actually met a real live brain surgeon in the flesh, and to top it all of, he wasn't so bad on the eyes either.

"Oh wow," was all she managed to get out.

"It's really not that cool. Meredith here is the real superstar," he added, sharing an affectionate glance with his wife, who looked away, clearly blushing.

Amber felt her own cheeks begin to warm, sensing she was intruding on some secret moment between the two of them. Was this what actual love looked like? She'd never known her dad, and that fact alone was enough to prove there'd never been true love between her parents, much less between her mom and the boyfriends she dragged through the front door.

"Are you guys married?" The question slipped off her tongue before she had a chance to stop it.

"If a post it counts as a marriage license, then yes," Meredith laughed, sharing some inside joke with Derek. Amber's brow furrowed, not understanding the reference, so Meredith added, "Unofficially, yes. We just haven't had time to plan another wedding."

"What happened to the first one?" she asked, hoping she wasn't overstepping any boundaries by asking.

"Well, we gave that one to Alex," she said, her tone slightly confused as to why she didn't know that.

Amber held her fork in mid-air, trying to process what she'd just said. "Alex is married," she stated in disbelief, like she had to say the words herself to fully grasp their meaning. This time she didn't even bother to check if her jaw had dropped.

Meredith shifted uncomfortably in her chair as Derek's alarmed eyes burned into her side. It literally didn't take a neurosurgeon to realize they'd dropped a rather large bomb on her, as she'd clearly been left in the dark—most likely for a reason. Meredith bit her lip nervously, trying to come up with a response that wasn't about to bury her in a hole six feet under. She felt her insides churn at the mere thought of Alex finding out. Apparently she hadn't gotten the memo of what could be breakfast conversation material and what was to be kept in the vault.

"Uh, well, he was," she began, before quickly adding, "but it didn't last very long. Not even worth mentioning." She hoped that last bit of information would make her feel like she hadn't missed out on anything important after all.

Amber slightly shook her head, unable to grasp what she was saying. Alex was divorced was what she inferred. He never had called on birthdays or any holidays, so why would he call to tell them he'd apparently gotten married on a limb and then divorced two seconds later.

A blanket of awkward silence fell over the room.

Not wanting this revelation to ruin her nice breakfast, she swallowed all the hurt, confusion, sadness, and shock she felt, forcing herself to store it away until later and slap on a fake smile for now.

* * *

Meredith and Derek had left hours ago. At first Amber laid on the couch, flipping through a few magazines that had been discarded on the coffee table. They were all medical related and most of it went right over her head, so she quickly lost interest. She'd then switched to watching TV, catching the latest episode of _The Price is Right_ before ordering a pizza. Four slices and a few hours later, she finally was fed up with crappy daytime shows and eye-rolling soap operas. In a house of multiple surgeons, how was it that they couldn't afford cable? Taking in the eerie silence that filled the room, maybe it was because nobody was ever home long enough to enjoy cable anyway.

Sighing, she gave up with the TV and decided to explore the house. She began to slowly wander around, taking in all of its details: pictures, furniture, even the chipped paint and marks along the walls.

Her journey eventually brought her back to Alex's room. She had been so exhausted last night that she hadn't really had the chance to take it all in. It was a simple room—the bare minimum, but that had been what they'd always had. The black sheets and beige comforter were sloppily thrown around as she had gotten ready in a hurry that morning. A single lamp rested next to a digital clock on the wooden nightstand. The only other two pieces of furniture in the room were a small dresser and half-sized bookshelf with a bunch of unorganized papers and books places in stacks, rather than neatly lined up. Deciding to see what was behind door number one, she walked over to the corner, standing in front of the white closet door.

Amber glanced over her shoulder again, like she had to double check she was really alone and that there weren't any hidden cameras around. She felt like she was doing something wrong; she hadn't even hesitated this much when she'd shoplifted, but for some reason she was now. Was this a complete invasion of his privacy?

"It's just a closet, not his diary," she reasoned with herself out loud.

Acting before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, she pulled open the closet door. There were only a couple shirts poorly hung on the hangars and a huge stack of clothes that had been haphazardly tossed on a self. There was no doubt this was his closet. He'd never been one to keep things organized. _Why fold clothes when you're just going to use them later_, he'd always said.

At first, Amber had convinced herself she was just going to take a peek around, not touch anything, just casually observe his things. But then curiosity got the best of her. One thing led to another and before she knew it, she as full-on snooping like an undercover detective, trying to use everything to help piece together what her brother was really like nowadays.

There wasn't anything noteworthy about this stuff though, much to her disappointment as she was hoping to find a wedding ring or pictures to help glue the puzzle pieces together. But it wasn't until she was looking through a stack of textbooks and random papers that she found something that caught her eye.

Sticking only slightly out of the top of a pediatric medicine book was what looked like envelopes, the top edges clearly worn from rubbing against other things, like they'd been there for quite a while. Only partial letters could be seen written on it and her breath hitched in her throat.

She carefully opened up the textbook with her eyes closed, not knowing if she really wanted to see what was on the other side. Would it hurt her more? Would it do more harm than good? In the pit of her stomach, she knew what she was about to find, but somehow her mind kept her from believing it, like it'd try to do all these years. Because the truth always hurt more, _always_.

She ran her fingers over the envelope before picking it up and realizing there was actually more than one. If her heart hadn't already fallen into the dark abyss in her stomach, it surely did in that moment.

As her eyes slowly opened, she saw exactly what she'd prayed it wouldn't be.

Not just any letters.

_Her _letters.

Staring back at her like some sort of cruel joke. She'd thought they'd been long lost in the mail years and years ago. That the address she'd used had been wrong and that's why Alex had never replied to them. That had been the only possible explanation—that he'd never received them because if he had, he'd have responded. There was just no way he could have ignored what she'd written. How could he have? Their home address had never changed so there was no reason they could have gotten lost in the mail. It simply had to be because he'd never gotten them.

But she'd been wrong, very wrong. It was like a hard punch to her gut as her breathing became shallow and quickened, her mind racing a hundred miles an hour with all kinds of thoughts and feelings.

Now those letters were staring back at her, mocking her and reminding her once again that her brother wasn't the guy she had made him out to be. The picture she'd created of him over the years shattered into a million pieces, each one a different lie.

Her fantasy…her make believe version of an ideal brother that apparently didn't exist anymore…the one who was supposed to help pull her from this awful life…was the exact opposite of what she had believed. In the last twenty-four hours, she thought she had gotten to see a glimpse of the old Alex she knew when she was younger...the one who took care of his family and cared for them, but maybe his friends had been right...after all, they knew him better than her.

Hot tears brimmed her eyes as she looked at the outside of each letter, seeing the evolution of her handwriting as she'd gotten older and how the postmark dates were further and further apart. She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she wanted to relive everything again, to put herself back in that mindset of writing to her brother…to see how naïve she'd really been. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the first letter she'd written and opened it and then another and another…her eyes pouring over every word…

_Dear Alex,_

_How are you? It feels like you were just here, even though I haven't talked to you for a few weeks. Aaron says it's because you started medical school and are super busy. What are you learning about? Mrs. Walters is teaching us about fractions and stuff. I don't get it, but Aaron tries to help me with my homework. He's not as nice as you are! Maybe next time you come home, you can help me…_

_Dear Alex,_

_Never heard back from you…I got your address off those checks you send, so I hope it's the right one. Maybe the mail is slow at college. Are you a doctor yet? I just finished fourth grade and now I'm…_

_Hey, Alex._

_I miss you. Why don't you call or come home anymore? It's been almost two years. Mom says she talked to you yesterday, but I don't know if it's true. Sometimes she makes things up and says she hears these weird voices telling her stuff, so maybe it was that. Because surely if you'd called, you'd ask to talk to me, right?..._

_ Hi, Alex._

_Well, I'm officially a teenager now. The "terrible teens" as Mom calls them. I don't know why I expected a phone call yesterday. You haven't called the last three years. Actually, I don't know why I'm still writing to you, but…_

_Alex._

_What's the point of writing? I feel like I'm writing to an imaginary friend because I don't think you even get the letters. Aaron says you don't reply because you forgot about us, that this is all pointless. But I keep telling him he's wrong. You're our brother, we're family. But I don't know sometimes. Anyway, I think you are a doctor now, so congrats on that! Here, well, Mom's officially become a serial dater. Once she kicks one guy out or he leaves, there always another one coming through the door the next day. Some are okay, most don't seem like the best of people around. They haven't done anything to me, but if they did, I think Aaron would protect me like you always did, don't you think so?_

Amber wiped the few unwanted tears that had escaped, bracing herself for the last letter, the one dated just over a year ago…

_Alexander._

_Mom had another psychotic break last week. It was awful. We were in the grocery store and what little marbles she had left, she completely lost them. People were staring. Cops were called. The ambulance came and dragged her off to the nearest psych ward. It didn't take CPS long to sniff out the case and since Aaron's nowhere to be found and you have fallen off the face of the Earth, they're going to place me with a foster family because they said our old neighbor lady Eda isn't "qualified" to care for me, as if I need a competent babysitter, those bastards. So I'll probably be shipped off to foster care until Mom gets better…_

Amber slammed the book closed, all the letters crumbling beneath it. He'd known about everything…the letters were opened and from what she could tell, they had read more than once, so there was no doubting that he'd _known_ _everything_ she'd written and _chose_ to do nothing about it. This wasn't the guy she'd grown up with.

She threw the book on the ground as she sank down onto the floor herself. Pulling her knees into her chest, the tears she'd wanted to hold back came pouring out. It was like a floodgate had been opened and there was no turning back. The memories flashed before her eyes…checking the mailbox every day, the joy she used to feel when she'd write him about her life, telling him all the little things going on and what she'd accomplished in school. But that joy eventually turned into desperation. Needing him to answer her, praying he'd read them and come help. And in the end, she'd never been able to swallow the idea that he'd been ignoring her. It had only crossed her mind on a few occasions thanks to Aaron's insistence, and she'd batted him away with a slew of other possibilities as to why he'd never responded, using any wild excuse she could come up with.

Her body shook as a new wave of tears crashed over her. She cried until there wasn't an ounce of energy left in her body to shed another tear. And as she sat there, trying to calm herself down, the sadness slowly morphed into anger. First anger directed at him, for ignoring her, for letting her still hold out hope that he might answer when he was really not replying by his own choice. But then Amber started to direct that anger at herself. Outraged that she'd let herself believe he was going to actually take care of her now, that she'd wasted time making excuses for him, justifying his lack of care for no reason whatsoever. Rage for how naïve she had been, allowing herself to think, even for a second, that this was going to work out, that _this_ place could be her new reality. And she couldn't bear to fool herself a moment longer, fantasying about the possibility of a new life.

She wiped away any remaining tears and walked over to the nearby dresser, where her bag was sitting. Cramming a few extra shirts into her bag that Meredith had laid on the bed that morning, she swung the bag over her shoulder and opened the top dresser drawer, spotting the small wad of cash she'd seen earlier. Without even a trace of guilt, she snatched two $20, quickly shoving them in her shorts pocket. She turned and caught a glimpsed her blue arm sling sitting on the bed. She stared at it, mulling over the idea of trying to get it back on. Shaking her head, she decided it would only slow her down in the end and all she wanted to do was get out of town as fast as she could. She quickly ran down the steps as her heart pounded and a lump formed in her throat.

She opened the front door and hesitated for a moment before stepping outside. She threw one last look over her shoulder, feeling a sudden ache in her stomach…a regretful yearning for what could have been.


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you guys for your continued support through reviews and adding this story to your favorites and alerts! You all are amazing! I love writing this story! It's my first original multi-chapter story, so I'm excited to keep it going!**

**I'm sorry for the delay with this chapter, but I wanted to get it just right. It's extra long, so I hope that makes up for it :) Please drop me a review and let me know what you thought about it! As always, if you have any ideas or requests for future chapters, don't hesitate to let me know!**

**A special shout out to sweetkiwi604 for her amazing help with tweaking this chapter! And more importantly, I'd like to wish her a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I worked extra hard to be able to post this chapter for you today :)**

**Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY!**

* * *

Alex shut off the car and sighed. He was thankful that he'd managed to pawn his cases off to someone else a few hours before his shift ended, but he felt so mentally and physically exhausted from everything that had happened in the last day and a half. And after all of it, he'd spent the entire day feeling guilty for leaving Amber at home to fend for herself alone.

Closing the front door behind him, he carelessly tossed his keys on the nearby stand. He quickly peeked into the living room and kitchen, searching for his sister. After noticing she was nowhere in sight, he started up the stairs, bellowing, "Amber!" He expected some kind of remark from her or at least a loud scuff, but he was only met with an eerie silence.

He stood in the doorway of his bedroom, his forehead scrunched up in confusion at seeing it empty. His pulse started to race and his breaths were caught in his throat. Something wasn't right. Had something happened to her? Why wasn't she here? His mind danced with all kinds of possibilities as he ran all over the house, double-checking every room.

Finally, he returned to his own room again and looked around for any sign or clue as to where she had gone. As soon as he'd spotted her sling on the bed, an unsettling feeling formed in the pit of his stomach.

And then his eyes fell on a discarded medical textbook of his on the floor next to the bed. He hadn't left it there because he hadn't even used that book in ages. No, someone had purposefully thrown it down. The cover stuck slightly up from the plethora of papers piled inside it. He knelt down and flipped it open and found his answer.

All the letters Amber had written him were all mixed together, no longer in their envelopes, carelessly tossed back in there in a rush it seemed. He knew there had only been one person in the house that day who could have read them. His breath was caught in his throat and his chest started to tighten up at realizing how this situation had gone from bad to worse.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath. Surely she'd drawn all kinds of her own conclusions when she saw them, not even giving him a chance to explain. Why hadn't he thought of "Amber"-proofing the room? Everything had happened so fast that it had never even been a blip on his radar.

A new surge of urgency rushed through his veins. He had to find her, he had to get to her before something happened, because the thought of her out there in this world without him scared him now more than ever. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to gather his thoughts, but all he could think about was how this was all his fault. He was slowly beginning to understand that the decisions he'd made over the years had some awful consequences.

Alex knew there was one place he had to check to confirm his suspicions. Whenever he'd taken off from a crappy foster home, he'd always search for one last thing before escaping. Opening the top drawer of his dresser, he cursed under his breath when he realized some of his cash was gone. Of course she'd taken it, that's exactly what he would have done too.

She was gone. She'd run away—again. This time it wasn't to set out and find her big brother but instead running from that same person who she'd thought would help her.

He was about to throw out a slew of curse words, but someone ringing the doorbell interrupted him. Alex took off down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time, silently hoping she'd come back. He stopped dead in his tracks at the bottom of the staircase when he could finally see who was standing on the other side of the door—the last person he expected to show up at his house, today of all days—Shirley Johnson, the social worker from the hospital. And he knew all too well that nothing good could ever come from a CPS worker showing up on your doorstep.

* * *

"Good evening, Alex," Shirley greeted as he reluctantly opened the door, knowing he had now choice after she'd clearly spotted him.

"Dr. Karev," he immediately corrected. This lady didn't get to be on a first name basis with him. She didn't get to just come in here, greeting him like an old friend when she was probably moments away from making his new reality blow up in his face even more.

"Oh yes, my apologies, _Dr. Karev_," she said, adding unnecessary emphasis to his name.

Lightening lit up the sky in the background, announcing that a storm was just on the horizon. It was the weather could predict how this night was going to go and it immediately put Alex's nerves more on edge.

"Can I help you with something?" he demanded, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"I had hoped to catch you at the end of your shift, but you seem to have left early. Sorry to bother you at home, but I really need to follow up on the case," she added, standing her ground as well. She was doing her job and this hotshot surgeon with a bad attitude wasn't going to push her out.

"What case?" His eyes narrowed, already knowing full well the answer.

Shirley's eyes faltered for a moment, trying to decide if he was being serious or not. "Amber's case, of course," she replied, slight confusion written across her face.

Alex stared at her, his face void of any emotion. His first instinct was to slam the door in her face. Then he briefly contemplated throwing mountains of profanity her way _before_ closing the door, just to make sure she got the point. But in the end, none of his options seemed like real winners, so he just stared at her and said flatly, "There is no case for her."

Shirley shifted her weight in frustration. "You see, Dr. Karev, once a social services request has been submitted, you can't backtrack, there's no 'take backs', as they say. But being a doctor and all, I'm sure you are aware of that policy." Their eyes met as she challenged him to contradict her. They were locked in some kind of silent staring match before she finally decided to get to the point. "Is Amber here? I'd really like to sit down and speak with you both." Shirley had a long list of questions she needed answered and it needed to be done sooner rather than later judging by Amber's long list of encounters with CPS.

"She's not here right now," he said nonchalantly, panic rising in his throat but hidden from his voice after years of practice.

Shirley tried to look over his shoulder into the house, unbelieving, and Alex closed the door a little more, letting her know that this short visit was coming to an end.

"Do you know when she'll be back?"

Alex grabbed his car keys off the stand before stepping outside and closing the door behind him. "I'm actually on my way to pick her up, so if you'll ex—"

"From here?" she interrupted.

"A friend's house," Alex lied, regretting it the second it passed his lips. But it had always been that way around social workers, lie, lie, lie, and think everything through later.

"Isn't she new to town?" Shirley countered, trying to catch him red handed.

Realizing he'd backed himself into an awful corner, he wasn't about to let it happen physically as well. He brushed past her and headed toward his car. "What? She's not allowed to have friends?" he retorted over his shoulder.

"She makes friends awfully fast."

"Yeah, well, she's a friendly person," Alex spat, opening his car door and turning toward her. Every minute he spend carrying on this ridiculous conversation with her was another minute for Amber to get further away—and he couldn't bear that idea. "And now I'm late picking her up."

Alex was about to close the car door in her face, but she grabbed onto it at the last second. "Guess we'll have to set up a meeting at work," she reminded him, her voice laced with a threatening tone, clearly fed up with his rude and evasive behavior.

Their eyes locked for a moment. It was like time stood still. Her firm, unwavering gaze let him know just how serious she was. After seeing Amber's file, she knew she couldn't take any chances now. She had to stay on top of her case, no matter if her brother was a doctor at the hospital or not.

Alex was reading her message loud and clear—this wasn't the end of things. Out of spite that she was infringing on their life, his eyes narrowed as a scowl formed on his face. "Sure," he muttered before ripping the door from her clasp and taking off.

His mind was racing as fast as his car down the highway. Amber's missing. The social worker is on to her—to _him_. Everything had seemed so easy 36 hours ago. He banged his hand on the steering wheel. "Damnit Cristina!" he yelled. She'd had one job and she'd failed beyond belief and just made this situation even more sticky.

But that was beside the point. It had to take a backseat to his other laundry list of problems. And number one at the moment was finding his sister.

* * *

Amber's leg bounced up and down as she stared impatiently at the clock, willing it to move faster. She checked her ticket for the hundredth time. _Los Angeles_. She'd decided to head south. They always said it was the city of dreams. Maybe she'd have some kind of luck there instead and be able to make a good life, become someone she'd dreamed of. And if not, she'd do the same thing she'd done today—go to the station and buy a ticket for the first available train.

* * *

Alex pressed down harder on the gas, leaning forward as if powering the car to go faster while he zoomed in and out of traffic. He had no idea where he was heading, just that he had to get downtown. If you wanted to get out of the city and didn't have a car, all means of transportation met there.

Gripping the wheel so tight that his knuckles turned white, he tried to rationalize his thoughts. She had found the letters, that was obvious. He imagined she'd been deeply hurt because he hadn't had a chance to bring it up with her, to make her understand.

She was a moody teenager on the run, but he was positive she wouldn't return to Iowa. That's what she'd come here running from in the first place. So that narrowed down the states to only 49.

She had money—not much though. It wasn't enough to fly anywhere and being an unaccompanied minor would raise all kinds of red flags. So that left two options: bus or train.

He zoomed off the downtown exit and silently prayed it wasn't too late. It couldn't be—he had to make things right.

* * *

Amber stood along the tracks, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She continued to throw nervous glances over her shoulder as though she were watching a tennis match behind her, always expecting someone to show up for her.

Finally the doors opened up and an employee dressed in a train suit and cap stood outside. She quickly shoved past a few people, handing him her ticket and avoiding all eye contact.

"Enjoy your trip," he replied automatically. Amber didn't say anything as she brushed past him and made her way into the cabin, taking the first available aisle seat closest to the back exit, always her habit—made for an easier get away.

* * *

Alex's car went up and came crashing down as he quickly veered into the train station parking lot, managing to ramp the curb along the way. Not wanting to waste a second looking for a closer space, he turned into the first spot he found, haphazardly parking between two lines. He had barely put the car in park and turned it off before he was out the door. He sprinted toward the main entrance as the sky lit up again with another round of thunder and lightening, just seconds before the clouds opened and rain came pouring down.

He tried to pick up his pace to avoid getting drenched, but he was already maxed out. Moments later, he got to the main doors. Opening them, he stepped inside and ran a hand through his damp hair as he tried to catch his breath and take in the sight around him. People were everywhere. There was a never-ending line to his right at the ticket counter. Women, men, and children filled the rows of chairs down closer to the tracks while the rain continued to pound on the roof as thunder crashed in the distance.

He was caught up in the moment, combing through the crowd, trying to spot his sister and her green cast. Just then, the train whistle echoed through the building and he was ripped back to reality as they announced the final boarding call for the train to L.A. He couldn't explain how or why, but he just had this awful sensation in the pit of his stomach that _that_ was the train his sister was on.

Not wasting another second, he tore through the sea of people, shoving anyone that came into his path.

* * *

Amber changed her sitting position every five seconds, never able to fully get comfortable. At first she'd stared at the people as they got on the train. She'd tried to come up with back-stories for them, but after seeing one too many happy faces and excited kids, she couldn't bear to watch anymore because seeing other's happiness only caused her more pain. It was something she didn't have, something she'd lost and she was ready to put this town and experience behind her.

So to pass the remaining minutes, she averted her gaze to her messenger bag resting on her lap, now a lighter shade of brown after she'd washed it earlier that day. And then she saw a lose thread sticking out and like she'd done on so many other occasions, she began to pick at it, drowning out her surroundings, solely focused on removing that thread from her life.

* * *

Alex ran along the train, scanning all of the windows, hoping he'd catch a glimpse of his sister. And then he did. He paused, staring at her for a moment as she was oblivious to everything around her as she played with something on her bag. Alex hesitated for only a millisecond as he tried to decide what his next move would be. He looked to his right and left and spotted an employee taking tickets close by. He sprinted toward him, trying to sidestep the guy and get on the train.

"You need a ticket to go aboard," the employee said, stepping in front of the door and holding out his hand to stop Alex.

Alex didn't even make eye contact with the guy as he strained his neck to see behind him. "My sister's on that train!" Alex yelled, pointing inside.

"Great, pal, but you still got to have a ticket."

"You don't understand," Alex grunted, frustration and impatience dripping with every syllable. A crashing bolt of lightening tore through the sky, momentarily lighting up the building, as if emphasizing his point.

Alex couldn't stand there and argue with this moron any longer. Without waiting to hear another word, he forcefully grabbed onto the guy's shirt and shoved him to the side, causing him to stumble and fall, completely stunned.

Ignoring the sudden gasps around him, Alex rushed onto the train. He raced through the aisle, knowing he only had seconds to get to her before that guy stormed onto the train to pull him off.

Then he spotted her and caught a glimpse of her green cast as she reached up to push a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

* * *

Amber continued to pick at the fraying threads, determined to make them disappear by the time she got to L.A. It was that same determination that let her drown out the commotion around her. Because if she hadn't been preoccupied, she would have heard the guy yelling outside. She would have seen Alex coming. She could have been able to get up and make a break for the exit in the back.

By the time she saw a shadow hovering over her, she looked up and realized it was too late.

* * *

"Amber," he boomed, more anger showing in his voice than intended, even though relief filled him on the inside. He'd made it—he'd gotten to her in time. The rest they'd figure out later.

"What are you doing here?" she seethed, her eyes darting around every which way, trying to piece together what had happened.

"Let's go," he commanded. He may have felt relieved, but just like most of his emotions, everything came out as anger.

Her lips formed a sharp line. "No," she spat flatly.

"We're leaving, _now_," he persisted, holding out his hand for her to get up.

He quickly glanced over his shoulder and saw the ticket guy's head appear in the doorway, searching for him. There wasn't any time left and his plan to convince her to come back clearly wasn't working.

"I'm not asking," he said in a low tone, not wanting to cause a greater scene than he already was.

Amber immediately sat up straighter as her eyes searched behind him to see what all the commotion was. Her eyes danced between Alex and the train employee who had just appeared in the entrance not too far away. She turned back to him. "I don't care what—" But she wasn't able to finish her sentence because Alex forcefully grabbed on to her upper arm and pulled her out of her seat, shoving her in front of him and toward the back exit. "Alex, let go," she hissed, trying to yank her arm from his grasp, but it was to no avail. He quickly rushed her toward the main doors to get the employee off their tails

Once they were outside standing under the awning and Alex was sure nobody was after them, he jerked her around so they were facing each other. Seeing his face after what he'd just done only added fuel to the fire burning inside her.

"You bastard!" she seethed.

"You can't leave," he began, his voice firm, trying to stand his ground.

"Like hell I can! Last time I checked, you didn't give a fuck about me for all those years and now you suddenly care where I end up?"

"You came _here_ and you can't just leave like this. You haven't even let me explain," he barked, the anger in his tone still feeding off his previous worry.

"There's nothing to explain! You're a lousy excuse for a brother and that's that." Her voice grew louder, matching the rumbling thunder in the background.

He sighed in frustration. "Just let me explain everything, damn it!" he yelled. Amber shook her head in disbelief and turned to stare at the door and then back at him, as if trying to decide what her options were. The last thing she wanted to do was sit around and have a chat with her brother. Alex took a deep breath before adding, "The crap about those letters isn't what you think."

She just stared at him, her eyes narrow slits. "Yeah, right," she scoffed, turning around to take off back inside and put him permanently in her past.

He reflexively reached out and clasped her arm. "Stop! Just come with me and we can talk," he tried again.

She struggled against his grasp. "I'm not going anywhere with you." Her voice was low, threatening.

Just then two women walked past them into the building, but not before throwing one last confused and concerned glance their way. Alex knew that if this argument continued down this path, somebody was bound to call the cops and accuse him of trying to kidnap a minor based on the tone of their conversation.

He had to take this elsewhere. He felt bad for what he was about to do, but there was no way he could leave her waiting there while he brought the car around. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that she'd take off in the other direction.

"Yes you are," he uttered, yanking her out into the parking lot by her arm. She protested the entire way, her slur of curse words masked by the rain beating down on them. His iron grip didn't leave her any option but to stumble along with him through the parking lot.

He went to the passenger's side and opened the door. She didn't think about it anymore—she just wanted to be out of the downpour so she got inside. Within seconds, Alex was sitting beside her. There was a beat of silence.

"Amber," he began, his voice full of fake calmness.

"I don't want to hear what you have to say, Alex. I'm sure it will just be another lie." She paused for a moment, throwing her head back against the headrest before adding, "Coming here was a mistake."

This whole plan, the entire idea she created in her head of the caring, yet slightly distant, older brother who went off to make something of himself…all the false illusions she invented in her mind. Building up these walls, never letting a bad thought touch his image. To think that he'd be able to save her, that he'd _want_ to help her. It had all been one big joke.

"Don't say that…" he tried, his face showing hints of remorse. Now that he had her (more or less) safe in his car, his anger slowly started to subside and he knew he had to convince her, show her, that she had to stay with him. Because he couldn't handle thinking about the alternative.

"Do you really think I'll ever forgive you?"

"Amb—"

"No, Alex. You let me believe for years, _years_, that you never got those letters. For years I convinced myself that they'd been lost in the mail because there was no way my own _brother_ could have ignored everything I'd written. I could have lived with that, knowing you didn't do anything because you didn't know, but now…I can't even begin to process it all." Alex just stared at her as she yelled without pausing to breathe. "How could you?! How could you simply ignore them? Even the last one, about Mom losing it? She went crazy, Alex. Literally. In every sense of the word and then some. Aaron was MIA, off not giving a fuck about anything. And I was there—alone. And my last hope was you." She paused, before mumbling, "I should have known you'd let me down. Just like everyone else." She turned to stare out her window, watching the raindrops beat down on the car beside her, suddenly feeling like she could relate to it.

Alex swallowed a couple of times, trying to digest everything. Why had he kept all those letters in the first place? Why hadn't he destroyed the evidence, ensuring that this moment would never happen? He'd tried more than once, but he couldn't just throw them out. They were from his sister. They were a reminder he needed to have in his life that someday he was going to set things right because deep down, the guilt had weighed down on him over the years. And he could never bring himself to get rid of them. They were a constant reminder of the man he failed to become in the end.

"I know I should have done so many things differently, but I tried," he said, his tone steady, not backing down just yet.

"You tried?" she laughed. "I don't believe a word that comes out of your mouth."

"I did," he stressed, his voice rising in frustration that he couldn't get everything out. "More than once."

Amber held up her hand, signaling for him to stop. "Don't. Just don't. There isn't a single thing you could say that would make me think you aren't the worst human being on Earth." She let out a sarcastic chuckle, aimed to hurt him. "Now I get why they call you evil spawn."

Their eyes locked for the first time since they'd gotten in the car. There was a flicker of fury and hurt burning behind her eyes, seeming to match the raging storm outside. His guilt-ridden eyes searched hers, trying to decide what his next move was.

And he knew it was now or never. Either he went all in and came clean or there wasn't even the slightest chance of repairing what little they had left.

He sighed heavily before blurting out, "I was there."

Amber's brow furrowed more in annoyance than confusion at his less-than-specific answer. "What?" she snapped.

"I was there," he began again, "at the district finals game."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Your last soccer game. You scored the first goal. I watched you celebrate, cheering you on until your team lost in the final minutes."

"You weren't there. You could have read that in the newspaper," she shot back, shaking her head.

"I was at Adam's high school play too, the one where he was the lead. I watched you clap the hardest for him in the front row."

She turned away from him, unsure what to think. Surely she had mentioned that in one of those stupid letters he had actually gotten.

"I watched you graduate middle school."

Now he was taking this too far. "You weren't there!" she bit. She _knew_ he hadn't been there, even though she had held out hope that he'd show up at the last minute. But she'd convinced herself medical school was a lot to take on and he just didn't have time to make the trip.

If her remark had any affect on him, he didn't let it show. He continued speaking, "You tripped _up_ the steps to the stage. You've never been graceful from what I remember and apparently you decided _that_ was a good day to wear high heels."

"Mom made me," she defended before she had a chance to stop herself. How had he known about _that_? She was certain she'd never mentioned it to anyone again, much less written down in a letter—it had taken her weeks to live down the humiliation.

She turned to her brother, analyzing his face. Clearly there were many secrets hiding inside, but she couldn't believe him. How could any of this be true? It still didn't explain anything with the letters. He was just talking irrelevant nonsense.

"And I was at Aaron's high school graduation. You were sitting down on the floor seats, anxiously looking around as it was about to begin. You had your coat draped over the chair beside you, saving it for Mom, but she never showed," he recalled. He had hated seeing her there alone, but he couldn't, wouldn't, go down there.

"You're wrong," she threw back without missing a beat. Maybe he _had_ been there, but that didn't mean he knew all the correct details.

He stared at her, his head titled slightly to the side. How could he have been wrong if he had witnessed what he'd just said?

"We knew Mom wasn't coming. Hell, she didn't even know what month it was, let alone Aaron was about to graduate."

"Then who was it for?" The question slid off his tongue before he could catch it and truly think about it.

"For you, jackass. We'd thought you'd actually show up." Graduating high school had been a big deal for their family since Aaron had been only the second one to do it and they had both thought Alex would show up for the occasion.

"I did," he challenged as a new wave of guilt buried him again.

"Yeah, and you stayed in the shadows like a fucking coward. Afraid of your own family, was that it?"

"Amber, that's not…"

She turned her whole body toward him, unable to hold anything back now, refusing to bury her thoughts again. "Is any of this supposed to make me feel better? Knowing that you made all those trips to share moments with us, but you never actually followed through with it? You just stood off to the side, looking at us from a distance. Too scared to come over. What kept you away, huh? Guilt? Fear? Stupidity? Or you just couldn't man up and face us?"

He didn't even have to think about the answer. "All of the above." Amber was visibly taken off guard by his honesty and he took that as his chance to continue. "Every time I made the trip back to Iowa, I was convinced _that_ was going to be the time when I'd talk to you guys. But as I got closer, I always ended up talking myself out of it. I'd persuade myself that the crazy and everything that came along with it wasn't worth it. I couldn't let myself get sucked back into that unpredictable life that I'd worked so hard to get away from. I couldn't afford those kinds of distractions."

"So you saw us as a distraction from your amazing new life? Wow." She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "It's so easy for you to just shove us to the side and pretend you have no part in any of it. How do you fucking sleep at night?"

"It's not like that!" he yelled harshly, slamming his hands down on the steering wheel. This wasn't going anywhere like he'd imagined. It wasn't supposed to be this hard. Why couldn't she just understand?

Alex took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down before speaking again. "I wanted to be there for Aaron—for you. But I couldn't…I couldn't let all that shit with Mom and everything drag me down again. I was just at the beginning of a very long road to becoming a surgeon and my mind wasn't in the right place."

"You can say that again," she mocked.

"But you think I don't regret it? That a day doesn't go by where I don't think about what I could of…should have done differently? Every time I'd get a letter from you, the guilt would eat away at me for weeks. Why the hell do you think I made all those trips? I thought it'd somehow make things better."

"You made those trips for yourself, to try and make the guilt go away. As for me, obviously it didn't help anything because nothing got better and all I did was make up excuses for you all those those," Amber spat back. Tears began to push against eyes. "You were so wrong. _Nothing_ got better, Alex, in fact, it got worse. Why, you wonder? Because you were never there."

The entire storm she'd kept balled up inside finally boiled to the surface and the tears came pouring down her face like the rain on the windshield.

Alex was stunned. He hadn't seen this coming and crying girls had never been his forte. He just stared at her, unsure what he could say now to fix things. He didn't _do_ feelings which was why this entire situation had been so frustrating for him.

Between one wave of tears and the next, Amber managed to get out, "Everything got worse. It was unbearable these last few years." She turned to face him. "And _you_ weren't there to help," she yelled as she shoved her fist into his chest. "_You_ blew off your family." Another punch he just took without trying to stop her. "_You_ forgot about us…about _me_." The last punch was weak as the crying drained her body of its strength. "I just wanted…_needed_ you to make it better and you never came." Her voice trailed off.

"So you came to me," he finished for her, suddenly able to put more of the missing puzzle pieces together.

And there it was. She had finally laid all of her feeling out there in the open. She'd let herself get vulnerable in front of him and all he could do was stare back at her now.

Amber buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the tears. Alex turned to her, resting an arm over the back of her seat, starting to feel like he needed to open up more and put it all out there. "But I'm here now, Amber." His voice was no longer filled with guilt or remorse but instead sheer honestly, sincerity. "I'm here now and things are going to get better," he reassured.

"It won't get better," she muttered into her hands. If the last day and a half had been any proof, she knew it wouldn't.

"Yes, it will." He hesitated for a moment. "Amber, look at me." She took a few deep breaths before she wiped a few stray tears away and turned to face him. "I was an ass, I'll never deny that. But discussing it like this won't get us anywhere."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Her voice was full of caution.

"For now, we go from here, move forward and we'll figure it out on the way." Because that was all that mattered to him now. He had her here with him and that meant nothing would get to her. He was bound and determined to make up for all those years of bad decisions.

"I don't even know if I can trust you. Hell, I haven't even had a moment to process everything, Alex."

"Just stay." That was all that mattered in the end.

She was lost for a moment, truly attempting to analyze the weight of what he was saying. Could she really trust him? After everything that she had found out today? But what options did she have…leave and see how things went on her own, see how long she could outrun CPS…or stay here and see if she could still have the same future she'd been dreaming of.

Amber took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down enough to face him. Finally she turned. His eyes searched her face, imploring her to meet his gaze. She eventually relented and her water stained eyes locked with his. And she saw something in them that she hadn't seen since she was a kid—they were genuine, they cared, they were protective.

Nobody had ever fought for her to _stay_. Nobody had cared enough to even want her around when she was on the verge of leaving, unless they had been scared they'd lose their foster home pay. Nobody really ever cared where she ended up. And now, here was someone who was arguing with her because he _wanted_ her to stay, he wanted to take care of her, actually help her. And despite all the things that had just come to light about their past, she couldn't help but let herself think there might still be something here for her. Because if he cared this much, maybe, just maybe, they'd eventually be able to work through this and make it to the other side. What did she have to lose?

"Stay here," he repeated.

Amber closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and replying, "Okay."

"Okay?" he said, cautious that she'd agreed to it.

She threw him a half smile before wiping away the last of her tears, a very rare burst of optimism rushing through her veins. "Like you said, we have to move forward…so that means no more looking back."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait. I was on vacation and had a lot of catching up to do at work! This chapter isn't as long as the others, but I really wanted to get something out to you guys because you've all been so AWESOME! I'm already working on the next chapter!**

**Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Do you like flashbacks? Is there too much/too little dialogue? We're all here to become better writers, so hearing your opinion helps me improve or continue including things you like :)**

**Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY! **

* * *

Amber's mind was reeling with all kinds of thoughts as she replayed the events over in her mind…the entire conversation…no, all the _confessions_ that had come out. She had never even dreamed that Alex would tell her that stuff and now she saw her brother in a different light. Sure it seemed he had cared about them enough to _want_ to be a part of those exciting times in their lives, but he never actually followed through with them completely. How would her life had been different if he had _actively_ been part of those things? She wasn't sure it would have made any difference. It probably would have made her miss him more or pissed her off after each one, when he'd get back into his car and leave her behind yet again. It would have been like a constant abandonment and she was starting to think that _that_ might have actually felt worse. Amber still didn't know what to make of any of it but now wasn't the time or the place to try and process it. She could do that tonight when she was finally alone.

They cruised down the highway with the rain still pounding against the windshield. "Is it always gonna be like this?" she wondered out loud.

At first, Alex was taken off guard by her voice, having spoken for the first time since they'd left the train station. _Always like what?_ The yelling, fighting, and out of the blue heart-to-heart confessions? He'd be damned if that were the case. That was a one-time ordeal and his feelings were officially back under lock and key until the end of time.

Amber noticed his hesitation and suddenly realized that her question had a double meaning. "I mean this." She motioned toward the window. "I'm talking about the rain."

"Oh," he replied, relief clear in his voice. "Uh, yeah. It's rains basically year-around. Except on the off occasion when it turns to snow or ice."

She sighed, resting her chin against her fist as she glanced at the passing house. "Sounds awesome," she mumbled sarcastically.

* * *

They pulled into the driveway and Alex shut off the car, hesitating for a moment.

"You better have food because I'm starving," she announced, getting out of the car before he had a chance to say anything.

He quickly followed suit and trailed behind her toward the door. "I'm sure Meredith will have leftovers."

She shook her head in disapproval. "Guess I'll have to start cooking for us so you quit stealing her food! She's too nice." Amber silently recalled the breakfast she had made for her that morning, but it appeared Alex didn't have any moral qualms with taking her food.

Alex was in the process of unlocking the door when he turned over his shoulder, shock clear on his face. "You cook?" The idea of a Karev cooking seemed so far fetched to him that he wouldn't quite assimilate the image.

"You can only live off of peanut butter sandwiches for so long," she commented nonchalantly.

Alex paused, stifling a laugh. It was hard for him to picture her _not_ wanting peanut butter.

"What's so funny?"

"Well there was a time when you'd throw a tantrum if you couldn't have peanut butter."

Now it was her turn to laugh. "Me? A tantrum? I think you have me confused with Aaron."

* * *

_Fifteen year old Alex was rummaging through the cupboard, trying to see what boxes and cans were left for him to throw together and call it dinner. His mom was off working the night shift, so it was up to him to feed everyone._

_The soft pitter-patter on the kitchen floor let him know he had company. "Hey, Alex?"_

_"Yeah?" he responded uninterested as he tried to find an expiration date on the box._

_"I want a peanut butter sandwich," the three-year-old stated matter-of-factly._

_Alex opened the last cabinet, knowing he wasn't going to find a jar because that would have meant his mom went shopping for food and _that_ would have been a miracle, but he had to double check before replying, "There isn't any."_

_"But, but…," her bottom lip began to quiver, "But I want it."_

_"Sorry about your luck, but you had the last of it the other day," he retorted._

_She folded her arms across her chest as Alex turned around to face her. "Did not."_

_"Did too."_

_"Did not!" She stomped her foot._

_Alex rolled his eyes in pure frustration. No matter how many times he told his mom to make sure she took a nap in the afternoon, she never quite seemed to grasp it. And then it always left him to deal with a tired, grumpy little sister in the evening. "I'm _not _arguing with you about this."_

_"But I want peanut butter!" For being so small, her voice carried throughout the house._

_"Watch it, Amber," he warned, his tone low. He knew this had all the telltale signs of an impending temper tantrum, but he thought if he didn't pay her any attention it would go away. So he turned back around, grabbed a nearby pot, and filled it with water. "We're having mac and cheese."_

_"Nooo! Mac and cheese NO!" she yelled, hot tears welling up in her eyes before spilling over down her cheeks._

_Alex ran a tired hand down his face. He was exhausted from trying to make up all the homework he should have done last night during school today, worn out from a rough wrestling practice, and tired after working a few hours at the local grocery store. This was the last thing he wanted to come home and deal with. Whatever patience he normally had was now nonexistent. "Knock it off," he chided._

_"No! I want peanut butter!" she screamed between tears, full on tantrum mode now._

_Her loud screeches were the last straw. He abruptly turned around and picked her up, effortlessly tossing her over his shoulder amid her protesting tears and kicks. "I'm not in the mood for this!" he yelled over her cries. Once he got to her room that she shared with Aaron, he put her down. Bending over to look at her straight in the eye, he stated sternly, "You stay in here until you decide to behave like a normal human being." He threw her one last stern glare before he stormed out, leaving her shocked, wet green eyes staring back at him as he closed the door harshly._

_He stormed back into the kitchen to finish making dinner, thankful for the peace and quiet now. About twenty minutes later as he was about to serve the food, he heard the bedroom door open and Amber's feet shuffling down the hall. Once she reached the kitchen, she crawled into her seat at the table. "I was bad," she stated, her voice full of remorse._

_"Yes you were," he affirmed with little emotion._

_"Hey Alex?"_

_He paused and looked at her, strands of hair hanging around her face. There was probably more hair falling out of her ponytail than there was actually in it by now. "Yeah?" He waited impatiently, assuming an apology was coming._

_"I need to be nice," she stated, as if she were giving herself some kind of pep talk. Alex just nodded his head in agreement. Her eyes locked with his as she said confidently, "Can I have peanut butter, _please_?"_

* * *

"Now _that's_ an exaggeration. I've always been an angel," Amber retorted, brushing past him and into the house.

Alex chuckled. "Oh really? What about the time you—"

Suddenly Meredith popped out from the kitchen after hearing their voices. "There you guys are. I was wondering when you'd be back. Alex, you should really leave a note next time."

"We aren't in freaking high school, Mer," he grumbled

Meredith crossed her arms. "Well then next time I won't be making extra food for you then," she shot back with a smirk. "Leftovers are in the fridge," she said, pointing.

Amber threw her an appreciative smile. "Thanks." Food was just feet away! She made her way across the kitchen to see what delicious meal awaited her starving stomach.

Meredith was just about to leave but turned around, all of a sudden remembering something. "Did that social worker find you? She made it seem like it was really urgent."

Amber froze, standing in front of the opened fridge. She whipped her head around, her wide eyes dancing between her brother and Meredith. The mere mention of a social worker erased any traced of her appetite.

"She stopped by here." Alex hesitated, seeming to process something. "Wait, you didn't give her our address, did you?"

Meredith stared at him, confused as to why she was being accused of doing something wrong by his tone. "Yeah, you left early and she said it was important she spoke with you in person," she explained.

It suddenly made more sense how she had known where he lived so quickly. He could already feel Amber's gaze burning into his side, rays of anger shooting out of her eyes. He had intended to tell her but there hadn't been any time yet. "The case she was so worried about was Amber's," he spat.

"What?!" both Meredith and Amber exclaimed at the same time.

"I thought Cristina took care of that," Meredith countered.

Alex threw his arms up in exasperation. "Well apparently not. The old bitch says she can't and _won't_ remove her case."

Amber threw the fridge door shut, causing everyone attention to turn to her. "When were you going to tell me?" she demanded.

"I've been driving halfway across town trying to find you! When exactly did I have time?" he snapped, his patience long having gone out the window.

There was a long beat of silence as each person digested what was going on. Alex was pissed that Meredith had aided that hag in her witch-hunt for him. His mind was spinning now as he realized he'd have to come up with some kind of plan. Meredith was still reeling over what Alex had said, silently wondering what had just gone on between the two of them, but too afraid to ask. And Amber felt an ice-cold shiver run down her spine. The social worker had been _here_ at her new residence. That was way too close for comfort and she had no idea what to make of the situation. Had she shown up to take her away? If there was ever a time she wanted to hide under a rock, never to be found, it was at that moment.

Even though Meredith had her own questions, she picked up on the confused and aggravated daggers being thrown between the siblings. "I'm sorry, Alex. If I'd known, I never would have said anything." Her voice was genuine and Amber didn't doubt her sincerity for a minute, somehow feeling like Meredith would protect her no matter what.

Alex took a deep breath, trying to contain his anger. "It's fine. It was only a matter of time till she got the info from my personnel file," he tried to reason out loud.

Sensing Amber's overwhelmed look, Meredith quickly excused herself and went up to her room, knowing they needed some time to sort things out alone.

"Amber…" he blurted out. "I was going to tell you!" he defended, already knowing what was on the tip of her tongue.

"You really should have led with this information at the train station."

Alex shifted his stance, tossing his jacked on a nearby chair. Honestly he hadn't even thought of any ideas of what to "lead" with when he went after her. His head had been filled with all kinds of other things, possible scenarios of how it was all going to end up, the fear of not finding her in time. And that's why when he finally did find her, the only innate way he knew how to react was to drag her out of there in a wave of anger. "Would it have even made a difference?"

"Of course it would have!"

"How?" he snapped.

"It means CPS is after me! I've been marked, a big target is on the back of my head. You know as well as I do that they'd track me down, no matter what hole I'd go hiding in. And then with a snap of their fingers, I'd be back in Iowa! If I'd have known it was that or come back here with my craptastic brother, I would have willingly gotten off that train."

Alex let the words soak in. Why hadn't he thought of that? Damn, things would have been much simpler and he could have easily avoided any "feelings" along the way. He mentally scolded himself for not thinking his options through earlier. But if she would have been so willing to come back with him, even being _that_ pissed off about the letters, instead of risking being forced to return to Iowa, there seemed to be a few puzzle pieces missing. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he was certain something else had prompted her sudden trip across the country.

"What else happened in Iowa?" he demanded, his voice firm but he couldn't hide traces of concern.

Amber's brow furrowed at his sudden change in topic. Where had that come from? Weren't they just talking about the social worker that was out for blood, _their_ blood? "I told you yesterday, back at the hospital," she reminded, holding up her casted arm.

He gazed at it for a moment before returning his attention to her. "Yeah, I know, but are you sure there's not something else?" Because there _had_ to be something else. Nothing was ever as cut and dry as it seemed, he'd learned that early on in his life and it was continually reaffirmed in his medical career. A simple, straight-forward explanation was only ever half of the actual story.

"Where is this coming from?" she challenged. She'd given him no reason to think otherwise but now he was coming out of left field with this interrogation and she wasn't going to give in.

"It just seems like you're dead set on not going back there," he commented, trying to sound not as curious as he really was.

"Oh, you mean just like you?"

He hesitated, not having any comebacks at that moment. Her point was beyond valid. He had made that very clear in the car how he never wanted to be sucked back into that life there, but just something about her evasive answers and defensive posture confirmed that there was more to the story than she was willing to let on.

"I don't know what you're tying to get at here, Alex, but I'm tired. So I'm going to go get settled in….again," she added as an afterthought. "Is that okay?" She needed this conversation to be over because then they could both just forget it ever happened.

"Fine. Aren't you going to eat something first?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Nah, I'm not really hungry anymore."

He walked past her and opened up the fridge, pulling out a container of leftover spaghetti. "But you said you were starving?" he countered, holding up the food.

"I just lost my appetite I guess," she muttered, stalking past him and heading for the staircase.

Alex nodded, knowing there was no way to fight her on this and quite frankly he didn't have the energy to do it. "I'll come check on you later," he commented.

"What? To make sure I'm still here?" she quipped, smirking.

"Something like that."

Amber took off up the stairs and Alex went back to heating up his dinner. No, he wouldn't be checking to make sure she was still there. He didn't doubt that for a second. What he really needed to do was sit down with her so they could first, get their stories straight and second, from some kind of game plan to take care of this social worker before anything got out of hand.

Minutes later, he sat down at the table with a hot plate of food, his laptop, and an opened beer sitting in front of him. If he was going to make sure this worked, he knew he had to do some research. The last thing he needed was to be taken off guard again. They had to know what they were up against and there was only one way to figure that out. He opened up the search page and quickly typed in _Iowa child services._ Before they could fight this storm head on, he had to make sure he could get the law on his side for once. He'd never been keen on punching a woman, but there was a first time for everything and there way no way in hell he'd let that social worker bitch march in here and take his sister away. Not on his watch.


	10. Chapter 10

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* * *

Alex had scoured the internet for information about child services and local area lawyers he could contact for help. After two hours, he was finally satisfied that he had searched every corner and had all the facts, so he made his way up to tell Amber. It was time to sit down and talk with her about their options and make a decision. If the past twenty-four hours had been any sign, he knew he had to be upfront and honest with her about things as they happened because he didn't want another sharing and caring session filled with tears. He'd already surpassed his yearly limit of zero.

"Amber?" he called, knocking lightly on the half-opened bedroom door.

"Yeah?"

"Can I come in?" he asked, not wanting to risk walking in on his sister half dressed or some other nightmare waiting to happen.

"I guess so. It is your room after all," she quipped.

Alex slowly pushed back the door to find Amber sitting on the bed, leaning up against the backboard with an open magazine lying across her lap. "So we need to talk," he said flatly as he took a seat at the end of the bed, facing her.

"About what?" She sat the magazine aside as she inwardly prepared herself to reflect off any of his questions about her past in Iowa.

"About the social worker."

She let out a sigh of relief. Now _that_ was something she actually wanted to talk about. "You have a plan yet?"

"Not exactly. But I do know our options."

Her eyebrows rose. "Oh? We have options now, do we?" Since when did anyone wrapped up in social services ever have options? That was an entirely new concept for her. Normally they were just shoved into a corner and that was their only choice. But her plan for this time would simply be to pick the lesser of whatever two evils he was about to throw at her.

"We have to get that bitch off our case and the only way to do it is legally, unfortunately."

"The law is always getting into our way, huh? What are the choices?" she pried, sitting up straighter, ready to listen.

"We get the court to declare Mom unfit to care for you and then you can come stay with me."

Amber shook her head is silent disapproval. "But Alex, that means I'd have to go back there until they actually declared her a lunatic. I can't…I _won't_ go…"

He held up his hand to stop her before she went overboard with worry. "I know. The other option is for me to become your legal guardian."

"Sure," she shrugged her shoulders. That seemed simple enough. No harm, no fail, everybody would go home a winner.

Well that had been too easy. "Sure?"

"I mean you'll what? Sign my permission slips for school? No big deal, saves me from having to forge them."

He stared at her for a moment, not sure if he was proud or horrified that she knew how to forge signatures so well. "If we don't have Mom thrown in the loony bin, there's only one other way I can become your guardian."

"How's that?"

"She has to give me permission. Sign off on it."

Amber didn't even try to hold back the laugh that slipped past her lips. "Oh gosh. That means we'd have to talk to her."

"Yup."

Amber quickly threw up her hands. "Not it." She didn't want to even hear her mom's voice. The mere thought of it caused knots to form in her stomach. Her mom had played a key role in all the problems that flooded her life and she wasn't about to call her up and ask for a favor, no matter how much she wanted to live with Alex.

He nodded his head. "This isn't a game of tag."

"You're just being a sore loser." There was a moment of silence. "Do you think she'd say yes?"

Alex shifted in his seat on the bed. "I think once we tell her it's either that or we're going to have her locked up in the psych ward, she'll see things our way."

"So threaten her?" Alex shook his head in agreement. "I like the way you think. Would that will get the social worker off my case?"

Alex's gaze met hers. He wanted to make sure she got the reassurance she deeply needed. "I don't see why it wouldn't. She couldn't do anything about it. The most she'd do is investigate me, make sure you're living in a good environment or whatever. But she won't find any reason to take you."

Amber's shoulder visibly relaxed. That was the first good news she'd heard so far. And if all that could be done by a simple phone call to their mother, demanding she sign over custody, then so be it. She didn't care who had legal custody of her, as long as it meant she wouldn't have to go back there again.

"And if that doesn't work, we'll just drag that social worker out back and make her disappear," Amber joked.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Alex deadpanned, his face deathly serious. Amber's eyes grew wide as saucers, reeling over what he just said. Her expression was full of fear and pure shock, wanting to laugh at his joke, but concerned by his seriousness. "Wow, you'll believe anything," Alex laughed, standing up and rubbing his hand on top of her head, missing up her hair.

She tried to swat him away. "Well you do have the serial killer look."

"You mean all serial killers are as good looking as me?"

She stuck her index fingers in her mouth, making a 'gagging' sound. "How about you make yourself useful and go get custody of your favorite sister?"

"Yeah, yeah," he remarked. "I'll call her first thing in the morning." He was already dreading even the thought of talking to her for the first time in years. He remembered that she used to be more coherent in the mornings, so hopefully tomorrow was going to be a good day to take care of business.

"Night," she yelled at him as he was standing in the doorway.

"See ya tomorrow," he responded, throwing her one last grin over his shoulder before reaching his arm back behind his in an attempt to wave.

* * *

Amber was rudely awoken by a mumbled voice grumbling outside her door. It took her a few seconds to realize what was going on, but then she instantly recognized her brother's voice. Quickly scrambling to the door, she pressed her ear up against the wood, struggling to make out the words.

"Yes I'll still send the damn checks! Just as long as you keep using them for your meds and not anything else," Alex jeered.

Amber cracked open the door slowly and carefully, not wanting it to creak. She caught glimpses of her brother pacing back and forth at the end of the hall.

"Fine," he spat. "I'll send the papers. Just remember to sign the damn things." He didn't give her a chance to say any kind of farewell as he abruptly hung up. He had reached his limit of crazy mother for the year and literally couldn't stand a second more of it.

She watched from behind as Alex ran his hand through his hair before suddenly turning around in her direction. Quickly pulling away from the door, she squeezed her eyes shut, even though she knew he'd seen her anyway.

Moments later he appeared at her door, pushing it open. "Hey. Sorry I woke you."

Amber smiled gently, glad there were no signs of annoyance in his tone for spying. "It's okay. I was already up," she lied.

"I just got off the phone with Mom," Alex began, inviting himself into the room and taking a seat on the bed. "She agreed to everything, signing over custody as long as I still help her pay for her meds." He flashed her a lopsided grin, one that was almost showing signs of disbelief that it had really been that easy.

Amber trailed along and sat down by him. "So problem solved then?" More hope echoed in her voice than she had wanted. The second she saw Alex run his fingers nervously along his jaw line, she lost her short-lived optimism.

"Kinda. I'll have to get a lawyer to handle all the paperwork and crap. And I'm sure that social worker will be still interested in us, so we'll have to deal with her bullshit. Then there's the whole matter of enrolling you in school."

Amber silently ran through the list in her mind…lawyer was a given. Neither of them wanted to risk messing this whole thing up. The social worker was the least of their worries after that because there wouldn't be anything she could do because Alex would be her legal guardian who was providing for her. And school? Honestly the thought of attending a whole new school had never occurred to her. That had been way off her radar in the slew of other problems piling up in front of her.

"School…I was hoping you'd forget about that," she winked.

"Too bad. It's kind of the law," he remarked indifferently.

"The law just keeps coming back to bite us in the ass," she quipped, playfully shoving his arm.

"I really don't want to be a shitty guardian from the very beginning."

Amber couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her lips. She wasn't mocking him or finding the situation to be hilarious, but just him saying that he was going to be her guardian made it seem a little more real. She was waiting for someone to pinch her and it would all be over, she'd be back in her room in Iowa, living her nightmares all over again.

"So you're in charge of me now," she said slowly, disbelief still present in her voice.

"Yeah, so you better be good…or else," he joked, throwing her a stern glance that was clearly fake and teasing.

It wasn't his facial expression that threw her off but rather his words that were echoing through her mind, like she had heard them before. Alex didn't pick up on her blank stare right away as he continued talking. Amber, however, was lost in a trance as a memory she'd tucked away in the far, distant corners of her mind came flooding back, replaying before her eyes like a black and white horror film.

_Amber followed her new foster mother into an older, one story, run-down home. She pulled her backpack up further on her shoulder as she closed the door behind her. The house reeked of age—an old musty, dirty smell that seemed to greet her everywhere she went._

_"That her?" asked a gruff voice from the kitchen to her right. A balding, middle aged man was sitting at the table, scuffing down a plate of steak and potatoes in front of him. His mechanic uniform was stained with oil all over from years of use. He motioned toward Amber with his fork and then turned to his wife for an answer._

_"Yes, this is Amber. She'll be staying with us for a while," his wife explained in a cautious tone as she pulled another beer out of the fridge and sat it in front of him. There was something off about her stance, like she was an obedient wife who knew her place was to stand behind him._

_"Listen up, kid," he barked, his booming voice pulling Amber's gaze to him. "I'm your guardian now so you—" But Amber interrupted him. He wasn't the first one to give some sort of hasty introduction speech, but she'd be damned if she didn't correct him for the start._

_"You only have _temporary _custody of me_."

_His_ _eyes narrowed, sending a surge of fear through her body. "Like I said, _I'm_ your guardian now, so you'll listen to me…or else."_

_And the dark, twisted smile he had plastered on his face sent a shiver down her spine as her breath hitched in her throat._

"Amber?" Alex promoted, but when he didn't receive a response, he tried again. "Amber!" This time he reached over and gently shook her shoulder.

The sudden touch ripped her from her memory and she instantly pulled back from him. She blinked roughly a few times, trying to push the nightmare down deeper and recall what their conversation was about.

Noticing her odd behavior, he asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, of course. What were you saying?"

"I was asking your thoughts on what I said."

"Oh…uh…" She racked her brain for any recollection of their conversation topic.

Picking up on her current struggle to answer and her obvious lack of paying attention, he refreshed her memory. "About going to get you some clothes later today and figuring out what school to enroll you in next week."

"Oh that," she said, trying to sound like she'd known all along. "Sounds like a plan."

Alex muttered something about heading out after breakfast before he left the room to go grab a shower. Vaguely aware that he'd left, Amber scooted up against the backboard of the bed, pulling her legs in closely to her chest as if to seek some sort of comfort, and she stared aimlessly at the wall in front of her.

Alex had forgotten to grab his towel that was hanging behind the bedroom door. However, as he reached the doorway, he instantly caught eye of Amber. She didn't seem to even sense his reappearance as she continued to stare, completely consumed by her own thoughts.

He gazed at her for a moment, trying to really take it all in. Her face was almost stoic. _Almost_. But her eyes were wide open and her chest was rising and falling at an increasing pace. A dead give away that whatever was running rampant through her mind right then was causing her anxiety. What had they talked about that'd cause her to feel like that? Maybe she was nervous about attending a new school. That had to be it. Silly high school nonsense that he'd never be able to understand anyway.

Just then, Amber's body jerked, like it'd been suddenly shocked with a jolt of electricity…like whatever was on her mind had sent an ice cold shiver down her spine and she just couldn't quite shake it of.

And for the first time since she'd arrived, Alex was _really_ starting to worry about what kinds of things were locked up inside that head of hers.


	11. Chapter 11

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* * *

Amber sat at the dining room table, staring at the papers in front of her. She and Alex had a productive morning and it didn't take them long to figure out what school she should go to, since it was literally under two miles from their house. They had given her a list of all the courses she could take and now she had to put together her own schedule so she'd be able to start sometime next week after her transcripts had been sent over from Iowa. There were way more classes offered at this school than her previous one…all kinds of AP and college prep options for juniors. She really had no idea where to even start, so she opted to just sit at the kitchen table and stare at the papers instead of actually making a single decision.

"Hey," Meredith greeted as she came into the kitchen, pulling Amber from her daze. "You get some shopping done?" she commented casually, nodding over to a few bags that were sitting along the wall.

"Yeah, we did," Amber replied softly before quickly adding, "I'll wash up our clothes and give them back tomorrow." Accepting help from strangers had never been a forte for her and she still felt slightly guilty about it.

Meredith shook her head as if it were a preposterous idea. "Don't even think about it. There're yours now."

Amber felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. Why was everyone so nice to a complete stranger? It was a concept so foreign to her that she still didn't know what to make of it.

The only thing she was able to reply was a simple, but heartfelt, "Thank you."

Deep down, she was actually quite thankful for the nice gesture because that added even more options to her wardrobe. At first Alex had insisted they go to an actual store at the mall to buy her _new_ clothes, but Amber shot down that idea repeatedly until he finally gave up and took her to a thrift store. Growing up, they had always bought clothes at those types of stores; it was the only option with what little money they had, and it honestly never bothered her at all. Knowing the value of hard earned money, she couldn't allow Alex to spend it on her just because he thought she needed _new_ clothes. She had always been a low-maintenance kind of girl, which was surely influenced by her upbringing, and that wouldn't change any time soon.

"Is Alex here?" Meredith asked, grabbing a few things from the fridge to make a sandwich.

"Uh, no. He was going to stop by and talk to a lawyer and then he had to go in for a surgery or something," Amber explained. She had hoped he'd actually have the entire day off, a part of her secretly wanting to spend time getting to know him. But as he'd said, you could predict the life of a surgical resident as much as you could the weather.

"Guess I'll see him at the hospital then. You want one?" she asked, holding up a slice of bread that she was smearing mayonnaise on.

Amber shook her head. "No thanks, still full from breakfast."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Alex took me to get some waffles." Although they had barely spoken during the meal because he had spent most of the time checking his phone and researching nearby lawyers, she had still secretly enjoyed doing something together.

"Well that was nice of him," Meredith replied, a hint of shock in her voice. Maybe Alex was a decent human being after all.

Amber just smiled. "Not really. I'm pretty sure we went out to eat because there's no more cereal left."

Meredith chuckled. "Yes, now that sounds more like him."

There was a comfortable silence as Meredith continued preparing her lunch to take with her to the hospital. Amber thumbed the corner of one of the papers, trying to decide if she wanted to bring it up or not. She knew it was only the two of them in the house right now, so there was no chance anyone would overhear her. The picture she'd seen at the hospital the first day she'd arrived was still engraved in her mind—something itching at the back of her head that she just couldn't quite shake off. There was something about it that kept her craving for more details. So she went for it.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Meredith replied cheerfully. Amber's ambiguous question didn't really give her any inclination about the topic, but she'd already decided that she wanted to form a positive relationship with this teenager. Alex had been very vague on the details that he _did_ share about their relationship and past, but she'd gathered enough to know that she didn't have many people to turn to in her life.

"What was Alex's marriage like?"

Meredith paused mid stroke with the knife in her hand. Of the random list of ideas in her head, _that_ hadn't even been a possibility to her. "What do you mean?" she asked, hoping to figure out how little detail she actually needed to give so she didn't end up putting her foot in her mouth like she did the last time.

Amber shrugged. "You know, what was the girl like?" _Was she the girl I saw in the picture? _"Why did they get a divorce?"

Meredith continued to busy herself with finishing her sandwich and cleaning up the area, not wanting to make eye contact directly with Amber. "Alex hasn't told you about that yet?" she asked casually.

"No, he hasn't exactly been forthcoming about many details…about anything really."

"Well, uh…she…she was a doctor that worked with us at the hospital," she began.

But Amber cut her off right away, "Was she blonde?"

Meredith's brow furrowed in slight confusion at such a specific question. "Yes, she was. Why?"

"Just wondering," Amber replied nonchalantly, but now that almost confirmed who the girl in the picture had to have been. She waited for Meredith to go on and when she didn't, she promoted, "So what happened?"

Meredith shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She didn't want to blow off her question, but quite frankly this wasn't something that Amber needed to hear from her. "She had, um, well I mean, they decided to—" Suddenly her phone started vibrating on the kitchen counter, drawing both of their attentions to it. "Sorry, it's the hospital. I need to take this," she blurted out quickly before grabbing her sandwich and waving goodbye to Amber as she stepped out of the room. She breathed a sigh of relief before answering the call. "Perfect timing, Derek," she gushed into the phone as she made her way upstairs.

Amber stared at the entryway where Meredith had just disappeared. She hadn't meant to make her so uncomfortable, but why was it so hard for her to get a straight answer? Clearly there was a lot more to the story and she was beyond intrigued to figure it out.

* * *

Meredith had taken off for the hospital not too long ago and Amber was once again left alone in the huge house. After watching an episode of another soap opera (they were starting to grow on her, even though she'd never admit it out loud), an idea suddenly popped into her head.

There weren't any more clues around the house that would help her understand her brother's life, but there was one place that surely could give her some answers—the hospital. There had to be other things in that locker of his along with the picture. Answers she so desperately craved. At that time, her idea seemed fool proof. Figure out the bus system, get to the hospital, check out his stuff. And if anyone saw her, she'd simply say she was there to wait on Alex to get off work. Easy enough. So out of boredom and lack of better options, she looked up the nearest bus routes, then grabbed her bag and some money from Alex's not-so-secret stash in his dresser drawer and she was out the door.

* * *

Three buses and one mistaken route later, she was finally standing in front of Seattle Grace-Mercy West Hospital, only this time she was able to enter through the main doors instead of being wheeled in to the ER.

She slowly wandered through the hospital, trying to recall the steps to get to the surgical wing, all while keeping a special eye out over her shoulder for anyone that she might know. Finally she had successfully made it to the doctor's lounge that she instantly recognized from before, relieved to find it completely deserted. Tossing her bag on the couch, she made a beeline for his cubby again, quickly rummaging through it at lightening speed to find something to quench her thirst for answers.

There it was. The picture of the mystery blonde haired woman, well no longer a mystery…it had to be his ex-wife, she just needed to find someone to confirm her suspicions. Lying the picture on top of the stack, she continued digging for more. She was so lost in thought that she didn't even hear the door open.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" came a booming voice from behind her.

Amber instantly turned around, a panicked look on her face. _Stick to the plan, just stick to the plan_, she inwardly reminded herself. She was met with a stranger's piercing green eyes that bore into her, momentarily taking her off guard. "I, uh, Alex asked me to look for something."

Jackson nodded his head skeptically, unsure if he could believe her. "And who are you exactly?" He glanced at the green cast on her arm and inwardly wondered if this wasn't one of Alex's patients gone crazy.

"I'm Amber Karev."

His perplexed look made it obvious that he had no idea who she was, aside from the fact that they happened to share a last name. Why had Alex still not told anyone about her? Before she could dwell on the topic further, the lounge door flung open and Cristina Yang came storming in, throwing herself wearily down on the couch.

"Oh, hey, it's Kathy," she announced indifferently, plopping her feet up on the coffee table in front of her and resting her head back against the couch.

Jackson turned his attention back to her. "I thought you said your name was Amber?" he accused.

"It is!" she affirmed, glancing to Cristina to see if she was about to offer any help. When she noticed her eyes were still closed and she made no sign of moving, she explained, "I'm Alex's sister."

Jackson also glared between the two women, clearly confused. "Yang!" he said rather loudly so she'd open her eyes. "Alex has a sister?" he asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

Cristina gave him a bitch face before closing her eyes again and settling into a more comfortable position. "Do I look like the Karev family tree to you?" Jackson let out an annoyed sigh at her indifference, but before he could retort something, she spoke up again. "If she's willing to claim evil spawn as family, she must really be his sister."

He scowled at Amber again. Ignoring his intimidating look, she jabbed with a hint of a smile, "Told you."

Jackson nodded his head, but his eyes were still narrowed. Just then, his pager went off and he pulled it up to see it, reluctantly diverting his eyes from her. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath. He jogged off toward the door, before throwing over his shoulder, "Just stay out of his stuff, why don't you." It wasn't that he actually cared about Alex or his things, but he could sense something was off about this whole situation.

"God, Jackson, since when are you Alex's boyfriend?" Cristina sneered at him before he disappeared out the door.

Amber couldn't help but smile. There was something that drew her to Cristina. Maybe it was her blunt remarks or her "I don't give a shit" personality. Something about it let Amber know that Cristina might just be her key to getting the answers she was searching for.

She went over to Alex's cubby and quickly grabbed the discarded picture before taking a seat next to Cristina. "Do you know who this is?" she asked point-blank, nudging her with her elbow and holding out the picture.

Cristina peeked open an eye to glance at it before quickly closing it again. "That's Izzie," she announced matter-of-factly.

"And Izzie was…."

"Alex's wife."

And there it was; she had finally received the confirmation she'd wanted. Now it was time to get more details and it seemed like Cristina didn't have a problem divulging any information.

"What happened between them?"

Cristina rolled her head to the side and slightly opened her eyes. She instantly saw Amber's curious gaze as she anxiously waited for some response. Normally Cristina wasn't one to sit around and gossip about this nonsense, but she was too exhausted to care after being on for 36 hours. The kid was asking her for answers, so she saw no problem in giving them.

"Izzie might actually be more psychotic than your brother," she said flatly.

Amber shifted in her seat so she was fully facing Cristina now. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, I felt bad for Alex for like a minute, then I remembered what an ass he is."

Unfazed by the clear jab at her brother, she prompted, eagerness clear in her voice, "So what happened?"

Cristina opened her mouth to start off the whole story, but just then, yet another person rushed in through the door, causing it to slam against the desk from being pushed with such force. The loud _bang_ caused Cristina and Amber to both turn in that direction.

"Amber, what the hell are you doing here?" Alex demanded. Amber felt her breath hitch in her throat at his tone. Whether he was worried or angry, it was hard to tell because his tone never changed. And just then her fingertips reminded her that she was still holding onto Izzie's picture.

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**A/N...Can you feel the impending drama?! Eek. I also just wanted to clarify that Izzie won't be a part of this story. I'm simply using that whole thing as a catapult for what's to come next :) **


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you so much for all your reviews and for continuing to read this story. Your support is the BEST! Special thank you to ****Emma Winchester424**** for her help with this chapter! I wouldn't have been able to do it without her :)**

**I took some extra time with this chapter because I wanted to make sure everything came out as I had it planned in my head. Now the drama is starting…eeekk! **

**Also, I want to point out that there are mentions of abuse in this chapter (nothing detailed or graphic).**

**Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY!**

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_"Amber, what the hell are you doing here?" Alex demanded._

_Amber felt her breath hitch in her throat at his tone. Whether he was worried or angry, it was hard to tell because his tone never changed. _

Her fingers immediately realized the picture was still in her hand and she tried to push it between the cushions as stealthily as possible without taking her eyes off his. "I came to see you," she replied, feigning excitement.

Alex walked harshly into Cristina's legs on purpose, making her take them down so he could walk past and sit on the lounging chair perpendicular to Amber. "Are you okay?" The only thing running through his mind was that she'd come to the hospital because something had happened.

"I'm fine," she reassured him with a smile. "Nothing's wrong."

Now that they had established the most important part to him, it was time for details. "How'd you get here?" he demanded, his elbows resting on his knees.

"The bus."

Alex ran a hand down his face. "_The bus_?!"

"You know, a vehicle with 8 tires that go round and round," she joked.

"But I didn't even show you—"

Amber held up her hand to stop him. "The internet has lots of information these days." Alex stared at her, not even sure what he wanted to say next, but certain that he hated the idea of her traveling in this big city alone without any help at all. "I didn't get lost, if that's what you're worried about," she lied. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Yeah, well you don't need to be out taking the bus alone in a new city," he scolded. Amber didn't say anything, just slightly nodded her head in reluctant understanding and Alex let his worry die away. "What are you doing here then?"

"I thought I'd come see my brother at work," she remarked, reaching out and smacking his upper arm.

Brushing off her sudden touch, he countered, "You should have asked."

"Would you have let me come?"

"No."

"Exactly why I didn't bother asking," she smirked.

Alex rolled his eyes, hating that she seemed to have a sarcastic remark for everything. It was like fighting with himself and he didn't like that one bit. "Did you finish picking out your classes?"

"Not yet…" She diverted her gaze, knowing she should have done that before she'd come.

Alex sighed. "You should be at home doing that," he countered flatly.

"But I just wanted to come see where you work," she defended, throwing in a small smile in hopes of persuading him, but to no avail.

Alex stood up, signaling that their conversation was about to come to an end. "You can't be here, Amber. This isn't a place for kids."

"Says the pediatric surgeon," she quipped.

Alex narrowed his eyes, frustrated that she seemed to think this was all a joke. He took a deep breath, willing himself to keep his anger at bay. "Have you had lunch?"

"Not yet," she replied honestly.

He reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out a few bills. "Go get something in the cafeteria and then _go home_," he said, adding extra emphasis to the last two words. He pulled her arm gently so she was standing up in front of him and then started dragging her toward the door. "On second thought, come back here when you're done. Dr. Shepherd is almost out of surgery. I'll see if he can take you back instead."

"Alex, I can take the damn bus," she retorted, pulling her arm out of his grasp, gravely offended. "I'm not a little kid."

He shifted his weight in annoyance. "Just come back here when you're done and go with Derek," he said, his tone and facial expression showing there was no room for discussion.

Amber stared him down, inwardly deciding if this battle was worth continuing, but in the end, she decided a free ride back to the house would be great because it'd save her time and the possibility of getting lost. "Fine," she mumbled.

Amber turned around to leave, but before she had a chance to open the door, Alex grumbled, "And stop talking to so many people." He had been quite annoyed when Jackson had come up to him, asking if he really did have a sister and why she was here in the lounge. He had kept his personal life separate from his professional one for a reason and he hated seeing that all go down the drain.

Amber's brow creased. "Oh? Now I'm not even allowed to talk at all? Guess I'll have to look into a career as a mime."

"Stop overreacting."

She turned on her heel to fully face him with her back up against the door, the question burning the tip of her tongue. "Why don't people know about me?" she demanded, her eyes searching his for some kind of answer.

"My personal life is _personal_. I don't need to go around broadcasting it," he snapped. Actually he had been taken quite off guard when Jackson had come up to him. If it hadn't been for that, he may not have found out she was even in the hospital.

"Alex, you're practically adopting me and yet you don't feel the need to tell anyone you have a sister?"

Cristina instantly shot up on the couch. "Wait, you're adopting her?"

"Not now, Yang," Alex barked, pointing a finger in her direction. Cristina just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head before returning to her comfortable position, trying to sleep and successfully blocking their voices.

"Why do you want to hide me? I don't get it!" Amber retorted, her voice starting to fill with anger.

Alex crossed his arms over his chest. "It's not like that and you know it. You have nothing to do with my work so there is no point in brining it up!"

Like any Karev, Amber fed off of his anger, letting it add fuel to her own fire. "So you're ashamed of me?"

"You literally showed up a few days ago."

"But I've been your sister for sixteen years."

Alex let out an annoyed sigh. "Even if I had wanted to tell people about my private life, there really hasn't been any time, Amber! In case you didn't know, I'm pretty damn busy here. I don't have time to just sit around and share our life story!"

Completely ignoring his rant and suddenly recalling the picture of Izzie, Amber spat, "Keeping secrets seems to be your thing anyway."

Alex couldn't take it any longer. "You're one to talk," he snapped, regretting the words the second they left his mouth.

She froze for a few seconds at his words and then stood up straighter, as if trying to let his words roll right off her. Sure she had her secrets. Hell, she had enough baggage to fill an entire jet, but why was he all the sudden accusing her of this? He clearly had his own suspicions about something from her past and she cringed at the mere idea of what he might be on to.

They continued to stare at one another, their eyes locked as they seemed to be lost in a silent battle, like x-ray vision trying to see who could crack the other's internal vault of secrets first. Amber had come here to get answers and Alex had walked in at the worst possible second, preventing her from finding out the truth. And it would seem she'd be leaving without those answers as well.

Finally she was able to regain her composure and she scoffed, "Well, no need to worry. I'll be back at the house in no time and you can go on pretending I don't exist!"

"Quit being a drama queen." His blood continued to boil and he was reaching his breaking point.

"I'll go back to being your invisible little sister in no time. So carry on then, Alex."

"Will you knock it off already!" Alex yelled as he threw both his arms up in front of him in complete and utter exasperation.

And that's when he saw it. His sudden arm movements had caused Amber to react.

_She flinched…_her body seemingly prepared to cower back in fear of what was to come.

To the normal eye, it probably would have been almost unperceivable, would have gone unnoticed. But from his own experience, Alex had always been aware, alert, able to perceive what was going on when others might disregard it as nothing. His eye had been trained to pick up on those things. It was something so subtle that only someone who had been in her place would be able to notice. Amber was completely taken back as Alex suddenly paused, staring at her with an unexplainable expression.

_She flinched_…

Because she thought he was going to hit her.

On some level buried deep in her mind, her body had told her to prepare for the worst, to shrink away because the inevitable was coming. But as soon as his hands had rested down at his sides, out of reach, her body suddenly relaxed, regaining its composure, all within milliseconds.

And judging by her current stance and glare, she had no idea it had even happened. _That_ was what worried him the most. It had been a subconscious reflex…an instinct…and that's only something that develops over time, put in place after being in the same situation over and over again, after learning that angry voices and sudden movements seem to go hand-in-hand. It was exactly what he would have done when he was younger, scarred for life from his abusive father.

_Alex was now a sophomore in high school and his Devil-may-care attitude and lack of respect had already landed him in the principal's office multiple times this semester. He sat slouched down in a chair facing Mr. Miller's desk, staring down at the old brown carpet covering the floor, just waiting for it to be over already._

_After a long pause, Mr. Miller finally broke the silence. "This is the third time you've been in here for showing blatant disrespect toward a teacher. And after looking at your record, there seems to be a long history of this." He hesitated for a moment, trying to see if Alex was going to defend himself against these allegations. "What do you have to say for yourself?" he demanded._

_Alex continued to stare at the ground and shrugged his shoulders indifferently, feeling no need to partake in this conversation. It always went down the same way. They'd lecture him about respect, give him a week's worth of detention, and then he'd be on his way again. It was the same song, just a different day._

_"Do you feel any remorse at all?" he interrogated, wanting to illicit some kind of response from the kid. But his stoic features and stone cold demeanor told him it was going to be a lost cause. Frustrated that the boy wouldn't even make eye contact, Mr. Miller stood up, hovering over his desk, his gaze drilling into him, and he belted out in a surge of irritation, "Alex, look at me when I'm speaking to you!" as he slammed his hands down on the table with a loud _crash_._

_And that's when the principal saw it. The boy's body recoiled at the sudden outburst, like it had instinctively expected that blow to come at him, but once he realized that the table had been hit instead, he relaxed a little, his muscles no longer tense._

_Suddenly everything he thought he knew about Alex disappeared. He had pegged him to be the usual disrespectful kid who had no parental supervision at home, so he always did whatever he pleased. But when he saw Alex react like that, he was hit with the abrupt realization that not everything was as it seemed to be. There was a story hidden behind that tough-guy outward appearance The kid didn't flinch because he was scared by the abrupt noise…no, he flinched because he thought that blow was coming at him._

_"Alex…." Mr. Miller's voice was now calmer, gentler, causing Alex to glance up at the unexpected change._

_"What?!" he demanded, his voice full of teenage rebellion._

_Mr. Miller ran his hand along his jaw line, not even sure what to say at first. "Alex…I wasn't….I mean, I'm not going to hit you."_

_"What the hell are you talking about?" he spat._

_"You, uh, you moved when—"_

_But Alex didn't want to hear another word out of his mouth or what he was starting to hint at. He hadn't been sure if he'd cowered back or not at the pounding on the desk, but in his mind, he'd expected that blow to come at him, although he would never admit that to anyone. His father may have been out of their lives for over 10 months now, but old habits die hard. Then, he stood up, not wanting this conversation to go any further. "Just give me the detentions and we're done here."_

Amber flinched because her body expected to get hit…

Alex was bombarded with the sudden urge to either throw up or throw a chair, but he did neither. He just stared back at his sister, all words escaping him.

Having no idea what to make of Alex's sudden change in demeanor, she took it as her chance to just leave and get out of there. "Screw you," she muttered under her breath. Then, turning on her heel, she opened the door and took off down the hall toward the elevators in search of the cafeteria again.

Her older brother was left standing there, watching as she stormed off down the hall. His brain couldn't even form a coherent thought. Sure he'd suspected things since she'd shown up, but there was a part of him that always doubted it were true, a part of his mind that refused to accept the real possibility. However, it was now impossible to convince himself otherwise as a whole new reality started to settle in. Guilt slowly crept up in his throat and he felt it tighten, like he couldn't breath, it was suffocating him. Rage consumed every vein in his body…anger at whoever had done this to her…fury at himself for letting it happen as long as it seemed to have been going on.

Without even thinking about it, he slammed the door shut and banged his fist harshly on the wooden frame, feeling the wood cave in under his sudden blow.

The abrupt noise didn't cause Cristina to jump but rather she curiously opened her eyes. "Alex?" She had tried to sound concerned, but her voice came out as flat and emotionless as usual.

"Shut it, Yang," he snapped. He stood there, resting his forehead on his fist, trying to steady his breathing and push all his emotions down. This was most definitely _not_ the place to Hulk out and destroy things. He stayed that way for a few minutes until he had collected himself enough to take a seat in the chair by the door. Resting his elbow on the desk, he began to massage his temples, trying to keep a pounding headache at bay.

Shortly after, Cristina reluctantly got up, annoyed that she wasn't able to get the 10 minutes of sleep she had hoped for. Just as she was about to walk away, the reflection of something caught her eye between the couch cushions. She reached down and pulled out the forgotten picture.

"Amber left this," she said, slamming the picture on the desk.

Alex sat there, completely stunned, this having been the last thing he expected, much less needed right now. He grabbed hold of the picture and looked down at it. If things hadn't been bad before, they were definitely beyond horrendous now.

"Where the hell did she get this?!" he demanded, his voice low.

Seemingly unfazed by his tone, she grabbed onto the door handle and turned toward him. "Not my problem," she retorted, shrugging her shoulders with a devilish smirk spread across her face. And without another word, she walked outside. Torturing Alex had totally been worth the lack of sleep.

"Yang!" Alex called after her, but he was just met with the evil laugh she was throwing back his way. "Damn it Cristina!"

As soon as she'd disappeared around the corner, he drew his attention back to the picture in his hand. He had no idea where Amber had gotten that picture and it had been ages since he'd seen it, let alone thought about that woman. Not giving it another thought, he angrily crumbled it up in his fist and harshly tossed it in a nearby trashcan. He looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. Why all _this_? Why now? He couldn't possibly care less about Izzie and that was probably the least of his worries right now.

He just couldn't get the picture of Amber out of his head.

Her body had instinctively ducked down…cowered back in fear…until she'd realized that he wasn't going to strike the blow that she was ultimately prepared to take.

Unable to hold it back any more, Alex rushed off to the bathroom in the back corner of the room, emptying the entire contents of his stomach. The images, fears, scenarios, everything was going through his head at a hundred miles an hour and it physically made him sick that although he didn't know how bad it was, he _did_ know that she'd been put through the same nightmare he'd tried to run from. He sat on the floor, resting his head up against the cool ceramic wall as he tried to calm another wave of nausea that threatened to overcome him again.

Maybe Amber had been right…they both were still holding on to secrets…but no matter how hard they tried, sooner or later, the truth would always catch up to them and it might just strike with the force of an unexpected blow.

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**Oh my! Prepare yourselves for the upcoming wave of feels :) Don't forget to let me know what you thought! **


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